Safsal’s Player Of The Month: Lynn Pride
Hapoel Haifa/Motzkin had a wonderful month, as they advanced to the
Israeli
Cup Semis at the expense of Ramat Hasharon, and won two out of three
league
games in January. Lynn Pride was terrific, averaging 17 points on great
shooting and 6 rebounds per game despite her injury vs. Ramat Hen.
Pride led
Motzkin to the big win in the 2nd Cup game with 25 points, scored 17
points
in 18 minutes against Ramat Hen, and gave an inspiring performance in
Ramla
as she led her team with 16 points despite playing in a great deal of
pain.
Ramat Hasharon Europe Cup update:
amat Hasharon 86 – Slavia 70
Ramat Hasharon knew it needed to win big in order to keep the chance of
advancing to the quarterfinals alive. Every point is important in the
overall point deferential. In the first half it wasn’t looking good for
the
locals, but a great 2nd half and clutch shooting by Gunta Basko helped
Ramat
Hasharon get a critical win.
Things got a lot more interesting in Ramat Hasharon’s bracket due to
Novisad’s 13 point win over Alessandira on Thursday. Ramat Hasharon now
has
a chance to finish first in the bracket. The chances of advancing from
2nd
place are close to zero. Ramat Hasharon plays in Novisad next week
while
Alessandria host Slavia. In order to finish first, Ramat Hasharon must
win
and try to get the biggest point margin they possibly can, because if
Alessandria wins by 2 points more than the margin Ramat Hasharon gets,
they
advance.
The 1st quarter featured very little defense on both sides, and ended
with
the score tied at 21. Gunta Basko and Gwen Jackson scored 9 and 8
points
respectively for Ramat Hasharon. Lidiya Varbanova didn’t get off to a
good
start but her team struggled without her in the first couple of minutes
of
the 2nd. She re-entered the game and scored Ramat Hasharon’s first
basket of
the quarter. Ramat Hasharon’s defense was still lacking as Slavia broke
the
zone with accurate 3-point shooting and went up 31-23, their biggest
lead of
the game. Ramat Hasharon answered with a 9-2 run but Slavia held a
40-38
edge at the half.
The tables turned in the 2nd half. The threes that weren’t falling for
Ramat
Hasharon began to find their way in and Slavia, who was hot from
downtown,
cooled off. The Ramat Hasharon defense which allowed 40 first half
points
held Slavia on just 7 points in the 3rd. Ramat Hasharon used 8 points
from
Tamar Maoz and great play on both end of the court by Varbanova to go
up
57-47.
Basko helped Ramat Hasharon gain its biggest lead at 78-60 with under 3
to
go, but Teodora Petrova wouldn’t let them increase it any further. She
scored 4 straight and Ramat Hasharon called a timeout. The lead was
only 12
with 37 seconds left, 81-69. Basko got the ball off a broken play and
nailed
a huge 3. Slavia added another point from the line and left Ramat
Hasharon
5 seconds before the buzzer. Following a timeout Ramat Hasharon got the
ball
to their hot hand, and Basko hit a J to beat the buzzer and set the
final
score.