Perfumerías Avenida de Salamanca will defend the title of Queen’s Cup champion that it achieved last season after defeating Lointek Gernika Bizkaia in the second semifinal of the tournament, which was unable to surprise again as it did in the quarterfinals. final by eliminating Spar Girona.
The Castilian-Leon team, wary of what happened on Thursday with the Girona women, put everything on the floor and from the beginning made a difference to prevent Gernika from growing and believing in the possibility of repeating history. They were close to achieving it because after leading a placid match and with wide differences, the determination of the Basque team made them get within three points with two minutes to go.
At the beginning of the game, both teams exhibited a disjointed game, without rhythm and with many errors in the shots, more due to the lack of success than due to the defenses they showed. Gernika only scored two baskets out of 14 attempts and her rival 4 of the same, which caused an unusual score, low, at the end of the first ten minutes (7-13).
SUMMARY
59 – Avenida Perfumery (13+24+16+6): Maite Cazorla (4), Vilaró (8), Carleton (8), Onyenwere (8), Reisingerova (4) -starting five- Leo Rodríguez (9), Silvia Domínguez (-), Gulbe (-), Nogic (5 ), Prince (6) and Fasoula (7).
referees: Francisco Zafra, Daniel Checa and María Angeles García. They excluded Reisingerova (m.37) for personal reasons.
incidents: second semifinal of the Copa de la Reina played in the Príncipe Felipe de Zaragoza pavilion before some 6,500 spectators.
The team from Salamanca pressed in defense in the second set and Gernika had many offensive problems because they were not able to move the ball fluently to find good shooting positions, which resulted in the difference gradually growing until reaching the maximum 16 points (19-35) near the break in a choral contribution from the current champions.
The team from Biscay did not give up and, after returning from the locker room, first avoided breaking the score and with a lot of activity behind them managed to get up to ten encouraging points (34-44) in minute 25. However, history repeated itself and the marker made the rubber stretching in favor of Pepe Vázquez’s to enter the last quarter with a comfortable distance again (38-53). Two three-pointers, by Sandra Ygueravide and Laura Spreafico, and two free kicks by Cvitkovic brought Gernika closer again (49-55) and spiced up the game with 4:02 remaining, leaving the difference in just three with two minutes remaining.
However, his seniority from Salamanca allowed him to overcome the situation and end up taking the victory, although not without suffering, which allowed him to defend the title this Sunday against the host, Casademont Zaragoza, who eliminated Valencia Basket in the other semifinal.
