USK basketball players are fighting for second place in Salamanca
Updates: 18.01.2022 13:47
Released: 18.01.2022, 13:47
Prague / Salamanca (Spain) – Basketball players of USK Prague are waiting for a second place battle in Euroleague Group A in Salamanca on Wednesday. He can already count on the American pivot Alyssa Thomas, who missed the last Euroleague duel due to the recovery from the coronavirus.
“We are going there to try to win. Although we are playing with the finalist of the last year of the Euroleague, we also have our quality. “Hejková told ČTK.
The Prague team won the first match in November at home by 25 points (80:55), but they have more defeats in the table compared to the Spanish opponent. In the event of Wednesday’s failure, they would no longer have to fight for second place in their own hands. There are three rounds left until the end of the basic part, but Salamanca is still waiting for the postponement of the postponed match on the Montpellier field.
“It will definitely be a different match than in Prague. The public cannot think that we are going to Salamanca to win clearly. There is generally no win in Salamanca,” Hejková pointed out. “Ultimately, it turns out that our biggest problem is the initial loss in Montpellier, where we got 0.6 seconds before the end of the basket after a numb whistling failure. If I succeed there, it would be a good score with Salamanca now.” But the point is that if we want to be second, we must win now, “added the Slovak coach.
Salamanca has been pulled in the last matches by the American shooter Kahleah Cooper, who has an average of 26.4 points per match after five matches in the European League. She did not play in the first match against USK and joined the team right after him. “She has a huge point average and has changed the Salamanca game a lot. On the other hand, we can’t just defend her, because right behind her is a very good long-distance shooter,” Hejková warned.
Katie Lou Samuelson, who has 14.8 points per game, and her sister Karlie are also successful in the Spanish team’s jersey. “As far as I noticed, only in the last match against Venice (110: 69) did the Samuelson sisters put together 11 triples. .
USK Praha has not lost to Salamanca since 2013. The Czech champions should once again be helped by the American subcutaneous support Thomas, who underwent a coronavirus during the Christmas break and did not play against Ekaterinburg last week.
“The team is in full force and that is good news. The fact that we have Alyssa back fills us with optimism. A super-strong opponent is waiting for us in our environment, but we will definitely not give up and we will fight,” added Hejková, who has already participated in the quarterfinals. sure.
The match will start on Wednesday in Salamanca at 20:30 CET.