Good show by Finnish women in EuroCup and EuroLeague Women opening day

For a while now in the inside circles of Finnish Women’s basketball the talk has been how the game is improving and the future is looking VERY good for the game in Finland.

And looking at the opening day of EuroLeague and EuroCup Women this week, you can not help but agree that the women’s game is DEFINITELY on the up at the moment.

Looking at the four games with Finnish participation – and hopefully during the day adding some comments from players to give the post some more context and inside views from the players themselves.

Firstly, the sight of EuroCup Women banner in Kotka and the visiting the CSM Constanta showing what a top quality European club basketball is all about – it was just a special occasion for someone like me who has been around the Finnish game for around 20 years. What made it even more special was the way PeKa performed in the game, it really looked like the team belong to this level of competition and for … let’s say 36 minutes of the 40 minutes, there really was nothing separating the two teams. In the end the experience of the visitors and slightly longer bench was the difference.

But make no doubt, this IS the level where the best Finnish teams can and SHOULD compete!

Lotta-Maj Lahtinen and Castor Braine took a win on the opening day vs Keltern, with Lotta-Maj scoring 14 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists and 3 steals – foul trouble(4 PF) meant that there was some extra time spent on the bench. But a solid performance and third most points in her team and also being in the starting 5 in the game!

Sara Bejedi came off the bench and scored one point more than Lotta-Maj in her game, with 15 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals, and with only 17 minutes of game time – Bejedi was still one of the top scorers for her team as they took a massive win over Iraklis on the opening day.

In EuroLeague Women Awak Kuier and Reyer continued from where they left off last season in EuroCup… which meant winning – no surprise to see Awak on the starting five and having an impressive stats line in the game 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks. With Reyer giving a good spread of game time across the roster it meant ‘only’ 28 minutes on court of Awak.

Looking at the stats of Finnish players, it does look like Sara Bejedi did not get the memo about Finns agreeing to score 14 points on the opening night 😉 And it was supposed to be – like Awak and Lotta-Maj showed…. 4 shots from 2 point range and 2 shots from behind the arc.. where as Sara made 5 from 2 point range, 1 from 3 point range and then 2 free throws.

What a week to start the EuroCup and EuroLeague Women – looking VERY good and can’t wait for November and the two home games for Susiladies !!

This post will be updated though out the day as players send video comments from their games !!