The Spanish team has said goodbye to their Eurobasket with the worst taste in my mouth. Three days after falling into overtime in the quarter-final match against Serbia (71-64), which prevented him from entering the fight for medals and defending his current European crown, the team of Lucas Mondelo has also had a cross in his final duel against Russia, who has taken advantage of the problems of the Spanish in the triple throw to take the victory by 74-78. The team needed to win to play the qualifying tournament for the world and this defeat confirms that Spain will not be in the appointment of Australia 2022 and that a whole year will pass without competing.
Lucas Mondelo’s team had arrived in Valencia with many problems. To the generational change forced by the withdrawals of the selection of key players such as Marta Xargay, Laura nicholls or Anna Cruz contagion joined in the days prior to the start of the Eurobasket of Alba Torrens placeholder image Y Tamara abalde. The two had to leave and this left the team without its main offensive reference in the outside game, the Balearic Torrens.
Spain fell on the opening day against BelarusA great revelation of the tournament, but he knew how to rebuild on defense and triples to reach the quarterfinals, where only bad fortune prevented him from reaching the semifinals. I would have made it if I didn’t fail Cristina Ouviña his free throw at the end of regular time against Serbia, which took the game to extra time and ended up condemning the team’s options.
The defending has once again given wings to Spain this Saturday, which, supported by its suffocating pressure on the ball and isolating the Russian interiors, has clearly dominated during the first half, in which it has come to have advantages of ten points (33-23). Only a final 0-7 partial has allowed Russia to regain a good part of its options by rest (33-30).
The game has begun to elude the Spanish in the third quarter. The selection came to the meeting as the best team of the Eurobasket in the triple throw (38% correct) but he has missed his first ten shots from beyond the arc and finished with a poor 26% (6/23) that has greatly weighed his options.
Russia has taken the lead on the scoreboard in the third quarter but Spain, in the absence of a Ndour reserved for fouls, has caught hold of the game thanks to the claw of Maite Cazorla and the points of Leo Rodriguez.
The last quarter was very even, with Russia almost always ahead but with advantages that did not exceed three points. Five points followed by Ndour They seemed like the turning point for Spain with less than three minutes remaining (64-62). But there the errors have reappeared from the line of three, first two of Cazorla and then another of Ndour, and Russia has taken advantage of it to sign a partial 0-9 and head towards victory (64-71 with 50 seconds remaining.
Spain has not given up at any time and has reached just three (70-73) with 29 seconds remaining. But the cold blood of Levchenko from the free kick he has put an end to his last hopes.
Data sheet
74 – Spain (17 + 16 + 14 + 27): Ouviña (8), Palau (2), Conde (0), Carrera (11) and Ndour (15) -starting team-, Gil (2), Casas (0 ), Cazorla (19), Rodríguez (15) and Domínguez (2).
78 – Russia (12 + 18 + 19 + 29): Musina (20), Komarova (6), Levchenko (15), Shilova (9) and Vadeeva (14) -starting team-, Glonti (11), Kurilchuck (3 ), Ogun (0), Goldyreva (0) and Shtanko (0).
Referees: Amy Bonner (USA), Thomas Bissuel (FRA) and Blaz Zupancic (ESL). Anastasiia Shilova was eliminated by five personals (m.38).
Incidents: Qualifying match for the fifth and sixth places of the women’s Eurobasket, which gave access to play the 2022 world championship, played in the Fuente de San Luis pavilion in Valencia before some 3,000 spectators.