Successful return to court after FIBA window

ZTE NKK - Sopron Basket 47-104 (16-37, 7-25, 12-22, 12-20)
Zalaegerszeg

ZTE NKK: Dzombeta 16/6, Mányoky J. 3, Kulcsár 14/6, Szabó P. 6, Horváth Fruzsina - Sub.: Dömötör D. 3/3, Úr B. 3/3, Horváth Fanni 2, Németh K. -

Sopron Basket: January 14/3, Pfeiffer 9/6, Walker 18/6, Williams 24/9, Brooks 24 Sub.: Fegyverneky 10, Czukor 5/3, Kocsis F. -

Statisztika

2-PTS: 13/28 46% ill. 30/43 70%

3-PTS: 6/18 33% ill. 9/20 45%

FTS: 3/4 75% ill. 17/17 100%

Rebounds: 24 (Szabó P. 8) ill. 32 (Brooks 6)

Assists: 9 (Mányoky 6) ill. 26 (Fegyverneky 6)

Steals: 7 (Dzombeta 3) ill. 18 (Czukor, Pfeiffer 4-4)

Turnovers: 28 ill. 10

Faults: 18 ill. 9

VAL: 40 (Kulcsár 13) ill. 168 (Williams 36)


Gabby got us going with a double, to which Briann added another one before Kulcsár hit a triple for the home side (2nd minute 3-4). Gabby scored six points in a row after that giving us a bigger lead early on (3-10). That’s when Zalaegerszeg started to make shots and came back down to a three-point deficit (4th minute 9-12). Gabby was unstoppable in the first period, she scored 13 points alone in five minutes. When Virág Pfeiffer stole the ball, then handed it over to Gabby for a triple the home side thought that they should try to put an end to our scoring run and called a time-out (9-22). Their efforts were unsuccessful, because we kept delivering on offense as well as on defense, which led us to being over twenty points ahead by the end of the first ten minutes (10th minute 16-37).

We opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run before Dömötör finally answered back with a shot from downtown (14th minute 19-44). Then our players kept on delivering and came up with another 6-2 run, but after that head coach Dávid Gáspár decided to call a time-out (16th minute 21-50). Zsófi made one of her signature mid-range jumpers after the short pause to increase our lead over thirty points, which has come close to forty before half-time (20th minute 23-62).

We picked up at the beginning of the third where we left off before the break, and made the hole between the two sides even bigger with a 12-4 run, but that was when we started to make some mistakes causing Dávid Gáspár to call his next time-out (25th minute 27-74). In the remainder of the quarter the sides were matched up well, so the difference didn’t change too much, but we were still in a commanding lead going into the fourth period (30th minute 35-84).

The final stage of the game began with a 9-0 run for us, forcing ZTE to call their next time-out (34th minute 35-93). Three minutes later Jeca converted Briann’s pass into our 100th point in the game, which led to the home side’s coaching staff calling their team to the bench for a brief talk (37th minute 42-100). Nothing of importance happened in the closing minutes, which meant that we came away with a comfortable win from Zalaegerszeg in a game where some valuable minutes were given to each player on court (40th minute 47-104).

Dávid Gáspár: "Each player in their own rhythm, but everyone is slowly coming back following the protocol, which puts the players' health in the first place. It could be seen on the team's performance that we played our last game on October 14th. We played in an unusual line-up tonight. We have to get used to this situation, just like we have done in the past month according to how many players we had at our disposal. We are trying to get the rhythm that used to characterize us back. Time is also making us hurry, because the HUB is up ahead of us. "

Gabby Williams: "We are living tough times in this world, but I am lucky for doing what I love, and being able to do my job. The coaching staff tried to keep us in shape in recent weeks. I was excited today, because we got to play again."