Victory in the capital kicks off new calendar year

ELTE BEAC Újbuda - Sopron Basket 52-77 (18-27, 6-24, 9-14, 19-12)
Budapest

Sopron Basket: January 8/6, Fegyverneky 8, Walker 5/3, Varga A. 13/3, Krajisnik 17 Sub.: Brooks 12, Williams 7/3, Határ 4, Varga S. 3, Czukor -, Varga K. -

ELTE BEAC Újbuda: Czank 10/3, Small 13, Boros J. 6, Dusanic 3/3, Smith 12/3 Sub.: Mérész 4, Juhász A. 2, Koch 2, Zsámár -

Statistics

FGS: 15/34 44% ill. 24/51 47%

3-PTS: 3/16 19% ill. 5/18 28%

FTS: 13/15 87% ill. 14/20 70%

Rebounds: 36 (Smith 11) ill. 42 (Krajisnik 10)

Assists: 8 (Czank 4) ill. 19 (January 4)

Steals: 7 (Smith 3) ill. 8 (Brooks 3)

Turnovers: 21 ill. 10

Faults: 22 ill. 21

VAL: 70 (Smith 23) ill. 116 (Krajisnik 32)

Briann got the game going with two successful free throws, to which Small answered back with a double. After that Zsófi and Smith exchanged buckets, launching a 9-2 run (4th minute 4-11). Then BEAC came up with a scoring run of their own, cutting their deficit down to two, before Alíz put an end to it with a triple. By the middle of the quarter the teams were still neck and neck, we were a little ahead, but BEAC wouldn’t let us pull away (16-18). With two minutes left on the clock Betti Határ came on court for the first time after a lengthy rehabilitation process, and a bit later she scored her first points from the foul line (18-22). Gabby Williams also returned from her injury, and came up with a three, and the first period ended with a double by Zsófi (10th minute 18-27).


Gabby opened the second quarter with a double, to which Sára added another one off Zsófi’s assist (12th minute 18-31). Then Jeca came up with a three-point play to stretch our lead even further, after which Tina was able to score from inside the paint. A little bit later Alíz made a double to give us a lead of over twenty points, but then Boros answered back likewise. However, Tina made a foul shot to make it twenty again (16th minute 20-40). In the remainder of the half we put even more in-between, and made our advantage more comfortable (20th minute 24-51).


The third period began with a triple by Czank, to which Jeca answered back by splitting a pair of free throws at the other end. A little bit later Zsófi managed to score again, from inside the paint, and then Gabby grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back for two (24th minute 27-56). After that a minute went by without any of the teams scoring, and Small put an end to the short drought with a double. In this low-scoring period we still managed to overcome the hosts, and hold off on their comeback efforts (28th minute 31-62). However, Dávid Gáspár was not happy with what he saw from his team and called a time-out. The brief talk had a positive effect on the team, since Megan was finnaly able to break the ice and made her first field goal of the game off an assist by Dalma, but Mérész also made two foul shots at the other end setting the score ahead of the fourth quarter (30th minute 33-65).


Alíz got the final stage of the game going after almost two minutes with a double, to which Smith answered back from the free throw line, and then Small went in for a lay-up. The shoot-out continued with a double by Tina, and when we were unable to stop BEAC from scoring Dávid Gáspár thought he needed to talk to his team and called them to the bench for a time-out (34th minute 39-71). Smith made a lay-up, then split a pair of free throws coming back on court, to which Jeca answered back with two foul shots at the other end. The hosts finished the game on a 9-2 run before Alíz was finally able to score putting an end to the scoring drought and forcing Judit Balogh to call a time-out (38th minute 48-75). In the remainder of the game BEAC took two more points away from our lead, but we still came out on top stretching our win streak in the league to thirteen in a row (40th minute 52-77).

Dávid Gáspár: BEAC kept up well with us in the first quarter. Later we managed to fix the mistakes that we encountered in transition defense, and that we were not close enough to the shooters. That was we got into a great advantage, and from that point on we controlled the game.

Jelena Brooks: It is "the beginning of the year", but we came to play a good game.