Anda Ramat Hasharon landed in Israel this morning after the loss in the Eurocup’s conference south final. Lior Klinger, who accompanied the team to the Final Four in Istanbul, brings you the post game quotes – exclusively for ‘Safsal’.
After the final the tournament’s awards were given out. Marianne Raguz received the ‘Best Guard’ award, Candace Futrell won ‘Best Forward’ which was odd since Futrell is a guard and Raguz plays the 3. Korona Zanze won ‘Best Center’ and Marie Ferdinand was named the final four’s MVP. Fenerbache’s amazing fans deserved some kind of recognition too for their non-stop cheering loud singing and the wonderful atmosphere they created for their home team.
Coach Orna Ostfeld
On the game:
“We had a problem with a few players who, let’s put it this way, didn’t perform to their potential and it was tough without them. Petra (Ujhelyi) is not in shape, Joanna (Cuprys) was very sick and didn’t function. We saw it in league play what happens whenever we have a problem with the 4 spot. Chasity (Melvin) can’t do it alone. If the guards don’t open the game from outside and score then the entire defense focuses on her. She can run out of air too, she can’t hold the team together by herself. The refs were indeed terrible, but in the 2nd half we just didn’t play on offense”.
On the motivation before the game:
“The players wanted to win, sometimes when you want to win so badly you look like this. It was our offensive game which didn’t work, we can’t win with 58 points”.
On the next stage:
“Overall in the north-central conference, the teams are pretty even. We’re supposed to get a tougher team and then there’s the home court advantage issue. We will host the 1st game of the home & away series but I’m still not sure what’s better, with all that pressure that’s on the home team in game 2. This 2-game system is just tough”.
Ornit Shwartz
On the game:
“It’s a disappointing feeling, I don’t like to lose. I didn’t like the way in which we lost. I don’t know if we fell apart, there were all kinds of things that made it look that way but you can always find excuses, home court, local fans, refs, all those things that sometimes get you in the game and sometimes get you out of it. Like I said to the team, if you don’t know the agony of losing you can’t appreciate the wins. There isn’t much to say, I watched from the bench most of the time, didn’t get in there to try to switch the momentum to our side, spark some energy and change things up which is one of my main roles usually. These things happen, it’s part of the game, one day you’re hot and the next day you’re not. It’s amazing how 12 hours earlier we were so high, we won and we’re moving to the next stage in the Eurocup and then boom, this loss comes and it looked bad too so it’s a bummer”.
On the motivation before the game:
“There’s always will, especially when you play a team like Fenerbache. It wasn’t one of those games where motivation and adrenaline don’t come naturally. Sometimes things happen that don’t necessarily have to do with basketball that affect the game, you start to lose some momentum and things don’t work out, one thing leads to another and it’s like a snowball and it takes a toll, nothing to do about that. I don’t think there’s any point to dwelling about this game, it’s over, just move on, my mind’s already in Haifa”.
On how to get past the loss:
“Our season is very packed, there isn’t much time. We need to stay positive, figure out what happened, we have no choice. On Saturday there’s a practice, and on Monday we have a game. The greatness of a team that wants to win is to get up tomorrow, go to work, run, shoot, keep going and not take this too hard. This team needs to show it can bounce back, that’s part of the staff’s job and my job as the captain and I believe we will do it”.
Chasity Melvin
On the motivation before the game:
“We were in a game where it mattered a whole lot if we won, but it didn’t matter at all if we lost. Our main goal was to make it to the next round, and with that as the main goal I think we did lack a little motivation. I mean, if we got off to a good start and feel like we can win then we would’ve played great but they started strong and they’re home and we know that if we lose we’re still going to the next round. They played at home, they got the calls, if we could’ve hosted this in Israel, it would’ve been a different story. It would’ve been a big deal if we won, we would have gotten to play a 3 or 4 seed so we knew the implications but we made it to the next round and that’s what’s really important.
Marianna Raguz
On winning Best Guard of the final four:
“It was a big surprise but it’s an honor obviously”.
On the game:
“It was a tough game, it just seemed like we didn’t come out that aggressive, we wanted to come out really aggressive. We came out a little bit slow, we were missing some important shots and it’s just transition, we didn’t have any transition game, we were playing 5 on 5 the whole time and they’re a little bit bigger than we are”.
Petra Ujhelyi
On her confidence:
“I guess I did lose my confidence a little, I know I can sometimes be like a rollercoaster, I have ups and downs and I guess I just reached a low point right now in the season. This happened to me before, it’s nothing new and I just gotta keep working through it, take a deep breath, get in the gym and work hard. I’ll be ok, there’s an expression that says players don’t lose their knowledge or talents for the game, they can only lose their confidence. I guess that’s where I’m at right now but it will come back”.
On her disappointing games in Istanbul:
“I don’t know what happened to my left hand, don’t know what happened with all those layups, I wish I knew cause then I could know exactly what I need to do to get better ant correct all those mistakes. I know my role on the team is important, I shouldn’t let my defender help Chasity’s defender cause that will take a lot of pressure off of her. Like we saw in the first game, she can kick it to the open guard so it’s hard for teams to double her off of a guard. I know I could really improve my offense”.
On the game:
“We talked about it, there were a lot of factors I don’t even know where to start. I don’t think we could really match their intensity, they were more hyped and obviously it was in their gym so they felt more comfortable with all their fans behind them. They had so much confidence going into the game, we might have gotten a little intimidated but I don’t know all the reasons. You could blame some of it on the refs too, obviously Fenerbache had a big home-court advantage but everyone just have to look into the mirror and think about ‘what did I mess up today’, learn from it and make sure it never happens again. Anyway we accomplished what we came here for, we advanced and we’re just gonna have to look forward to play the Hungarian team”.
Latest stories
|
Photographer - Ido Rosenthal |