At the end of the third day of the women’s basketball tournament at the European Universities Games Zagreb – Rijeka 2016, players from four universities maintain a winning streak.
Group A
One of the games with the highest number of points so far in the competition was the one between Mykolas Romeris University from Lithuania and the University of Groningen from the Netherlands. The final score was 94:88 for the Lithuanian team. There were twelve lead changes during the game, but in the end the Lithuanians managed to outscore the Netherlands team and win. Two of the Lithuanian players, Ieva Simkute and Kristina Alminaite, had 24 points in the game, but the title of the most effective basketballer belongs to the Netherlands player Lisbeth Visser with 26 points. In this highly entertaining game there were two players for each side with 16 points or more.
In the final game of Group A, basketballers from the University of Zagreb won against the Romanian team from University „1 Decembrie 1918“ Alba Iulia 59:62. The game was tense and the lead often changed hands. In the fourth quarter the players from Romania increased the pressure in an effort to secure the win, but the Zagreb team managed to hold on to their lead till the end. The most effective players were Ružica Džankić from Croatia and Sonia Ursu from Romania, both with 20 points. Close behind them was the Croatian Marijana Mamić with 18 points. This was the third win for the University of Zagreb and they secured their place in the quarterfinals.
Group B
Croatian team from the University of Split won against the Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology in Russia 75:71. The most effective basketballer in the game was Nadezhda Burenkova from the Russian team with 20 points and right behind her were her teammate Alexandra Burenkova and the Croatian Katarina Puljić with 19 points each. Despite their win, the Croatians weren’t able to qualify to the quarterfinals, finishing third in Group B.
The University of Ljubljana and the University of Goettingen fought for the first place in the group. The Slovenian players won 65:52 and secured the top spot. The team from Ljubljana started the game strong and kept their lead for the entire match. Three players in the game had 16 points, two Slovenians, Nina Gabrovšek and Tina Jakovina, and the German Birte Bencker.
Group C
The team from Aix-Marseille University beat the team from the University of Bochum 59:49. Players from the German team were in the lead for the first 15 minutes, but soon the French rallied and started pressing hard against the team from Bochum, taking the lead and securing the win.
The driving force behind Marseille comeback was Viviane Adjutor with 18 points.
The Bochum team came to the field without a coach and one of their injured players, Laura Piekenacker, served as acting coach.
‘It was physically very hard to win the game. We are now in the quarterfinals. After the second quarter I told my team to play quickly, very quickly and we won the match,’ said Vincent Bousgarbies, the coach of the French team.
The University of Warsaw demolished the Portuguese team from the University of Aveiro with a 50 point difference, 75:25. At the end of the second quarter, the Polish team was already 23 points in the lead and as the game progressed so did their lead widen. The players from the University of Warsaw acted as a team throughout the entire game, with a single goal of winning their third match and maintaining their status at the top of group C.
Group D
In the first game of Group D, the team from the University of Bologna won against the team from Bahcesehir University 83:54.
In a dominant display by the Italians, every player managed to add their name to the scoreboard, with Jessica Trobiani at the top with 15 points. Right behind her was Camilla Coraducci with 14 points, and three other Italians, Veronica Perini, Marta Scarsi and Alessandra Tava, scored 12 points.
The title of the most efficient player on the field, however, belongs to Ozge Kavurmacioglu from Bahcesehir University with 21 points. Still, her impressive performance wasn’t enough to keep her team from racking a third loss in the competition.
The University of Belgrade produced a confident win against the University of Physical Education in Budapest 77:45 at Pešćenica Sports Hall. The Serbian team kept their first place in group D with the third consecutive win.
The coach of Belgrade Bojan Ivanović was very optimistic before the game.
‘This is the last game in our group. We have to play good and after that we can think about quarterfinals.’
The Serbian team was aggressive right from the start managed to turn that aggressiveness into points. Not even a single player from either of the teams remained scoreless at the end of the match. The most effective in the game though was the Serbian Nikolina Milić with 16 points.
‘It wasn’t an easy game for us, even if it looked like an easy one,’ said Žaklina Janković from the University of Belgrade. ‘All teams are strong but we have come here for the gold medal.’
