More preseason round up from Finnish League
Games were happening around Finland over the weekend – and few results from both Women’s and Men’s Korisliiga preseason games ..
Biisonit and KarhuBasket met behind closed doors in Loimaa, where the home team ran out with a VERY comfortable looking 85-68 win to continue their good start in the preparation games ahead of the season – no stats/etc to see, so hard to see who was playing for either team or minutes and so on. But as said before – probably the only people who really care about these results are some random betting firms abroad as they try to figure out the power balance ahead of the regular season and few hard core fans. These games are always more about getting things working ahead of the season… still, a win is a win!!
KatajaBasket and Kobrat met in Joensuu on Saturday, Joensuu hasn’t been a nice place for the team from Lapua to visit over the last.. I don’t know 10 years or so?? And preseason was no different than regular season, as the visitors headed for the 7 hour bus journey back home with a 98-68 defeat on their back. Where as the win was nice for the home team to take – the bad news coming out of Joensuu is that both Teemu Knihtinen and Henri Permanto are currently injured, the team estimates that Knihtinen will be out of action for about two months, and the length of Permanto’s absence will be determined by more tests during this week. Never nice to see players get injured already at this stage of the season.
In Uusikaupunki, Korihait started their preseason with a nice home win over Pyrintö – 87-8o the final result.. and from Korihait Instagram account .. it looked like Mikael Aalto is on a mission to de-commission the baskets at the venue with some powerful dunks!! Maybe just a little encouragement to workers to finish their new gym early 😉 Also – not a bad way to start pre-season and perhaps look for a call-up to Susijengi in November for Aalto?? Pyrintö on the other hand, still looking to get their game going.. and other news from Tampere is that they are forced to make their first change of import player – with Xavier Bledson having to leave the team due to personal reason – a replacement is due to be announced today (Monday 16th).
HBA and ToPo started their preseason (women) with last years Champions ToPo not giving the Academy team any chance and taking a 89-63 win, Carmen Tyson-Thomas being her usual self with 29 points in the game. From HBA – with the stats on the official site only showing points/fouls .. it seems like HBA were possibly giving even playing time to all players, with the even scoring for all players.
Kouvot and KTP met AGAIN! – game a little closer than few days ago – but still a 87-81 win for Kouvot.
Peli-Karhut (who play in EuroCup this season!!) started their preseason against Tapiolan Honka in Kotka and a 90-68 win to take away from the game.. and will there be some player changes in Peli-Karhut .. the rumours seem to indicate that this is a possibility before the season tips-off…. but, rumours are always just that… rumours 🙂
Forssan Alku kept their busy preseason going and ranked up another win, with 86-62 win over TuNMKY in Forssa, a strong 24 points from Nenna Lindström helping the home team get the win over last seasons runners-up in the Women’s 1st division.
In the ‘south’ – Helsinki Seagulls traveled to Tallinn to play against Kalev Cramo – no surprise in the result with the Estonian outfit comfortably taking a win 90-63 – work continues for last seasons Finalists in Korisliiga.
Those are the results I have managed to dig out from various places .. not always easy to find, and would love some more stats as well.. but hey, keeps life interesting. Start of the season is less than three weeks away – and preseason games continue this week from Tuesday onwards almost daily … more updates to come!
