Women’s national U20 team started the FIBA Challenge in Sopron with a win. Our team defeated national U 20 team of Spain in the first round 61:57 (18:14, 10:17, 20:16, 13:10).
In the second round, tomorrow at 19:30h, our team will play against the host of the tournament, Hungary.
Serbia started off great, with points from free throw line form Visnja Stefanovic in the 7th minute the score was 16:8. Our girls even had the lead of 22:14- Marta Mitrovic has scored at the beginning of the second period after an offensive rebound. But, after that Spain went on a run of their own of 9:0 and that way got the lead.
Even though there were problems on the offensive end for our team, they did not allow the opponent to get a bigger lead. We even had a chance to go on to the half time break with a tied score. But unfortunately, Isidora Tripokovic did not make a tough three pointer.
After a couple minutes played in the second half, there was a reason for optimism. Marta Jovanovic started playing better, and Serbia soon took over the lead. All that thanks to the good defense of our team. They slowed down Spain to only 2 points after 6 minutes played in the last quarter. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize on the offensive end after the good defense, but they did well enough to keep the lead.
In the end of the game, Spain managed to cut the lead to only -2 lead, but their last offense was stopped by Marta Jovanovic. After what Nadezda Nedeljkov scored two free throws, then Helena Pueyo missed a three pointer which would not have changed the outcome of the game. After the miss Nina Samardzic grabbed the rebound and held the ball until the buzzer went off.
Most efficient on the Serbian team was Visnja Stefanovic with 13 points, Marta Mitrovic added 12 points and 6 rebounds, Isidora Tripkovic 11 points, Marta Jovanovic 10 pints.