Regarding the 2018 Euroleague Final every basketball enthusiast was preparing for celebration. It was the first time for a Hungarian team to step on court for the gold medal in Euroleague. On the other side a smaller World Selection lined up, which took advantage of their power against us. Even though the scoreboard showed differently, we couldn’t lose that night!
THE GAME
The gold medal game was launched by a triple from superstar Maya Moore. Three minutes into the game Yvonne was able to make our first basket, however, that didn’t stop the Russian ginats, which forced Roberto Iniguez to call a time-out (4th minute 11-3). After the short break we answered to Ekaterinburg’s start with a bigger scoring run, which took us within shooting range from our opponents (14-11). What’s more, with a shot by Zsófi we were only trailing by one, but then our opponents found their rhythm, and pulled away from us (10th minute 22-15).
Although we were trying to keep up with our opponents, Ekaterinburg’s players somehow always found a hole in our defense, and increased their lead into the double-digit region approaching the middle of the second period (14th minute 29-19). A minute later the difference was as high as twelve, but then we came up with three quick successful offensive possession to cut our deficit in half (33-27). The half ended with an exchange of triples between Danielle and Meesseman, and the latter hit one from 9 meters out to beat the buzzer (20th minute 42-30).
At the beginning of the third neither team was able to take control of the game so the difference didn’t change. In the 27th minute we were able to come down to single digits with a basket by Tina (45-36), and won the period by one (30th minute 52-43).
The great battle continued in the final stage of the game as well, we were still close to our opponents. In the 34th minute Moore made a lay-up forcing Roberto Iniguez to call a time-out (56-42). Yvonne kept us in the running with a triple and a lay-up (56-47). Approaching the middle of the quarter we were getting more and more tired, and had trouble keeping up with the Russians, who took advantage of that and decided the outcome of the game (36th minute 63-47). The crowd in Sopron applauded their team standing up from their seats in the final three minutes. Both sides deserved to celebrate! Ekaterinburg deservedly won the FINAL4 against our team that performed above their level (40th minute 72-53).
The silver medal in the 2017/2018 Euroleague season goes to SOPRON BASKET!
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