Honka vs HNMKY – WU19 Finnish League

Saturday was a double-game for me in the WU19 Finnish League, first game was at HonkaHalli – with Tapiolan Honka taking on HNMKY.

HNMKY has one of the highest scoring offence in the league, so it was going to be a question can Honka stop that. Both teams have also been on a little bit of a poor run lately, with both teams having lost 3 out of the last four games before Saturday.

From what I have seen, the players who play the WU19 Finnish league – they are often also in the D1 roster, and sometimes even in the Women’s Korisliiga roster of their respective teams. So sometimes results can vary on the roster of the day…

The game was a close one, with HNMKY taking the early exchanges of the game. Before Honka came back with strong 2nd and 3rd quarters.

Last ten went almost basket for basket, before the visitors took a big run and ran away with the last quarter 18-32 and the game 64-79.

To be honest, at the end, I moved on to the next court to shoot some WU14 Finnish League – with the Honka vs HNMKY game having a double digit gap.

Having been around the game for a long time and having talked to coaches and players – let me take a little look at the stats like a coach.. and imagine what they saw as the difference (I am going to be nice and not repeat what Dionne Pounds and Reetta Piipari said to me (as a joke!!) before the game 😉 ).

One look at the stats.. first thing the coach of Honka (Reetta Piipari) would say ‘Today we lost the rebounds 57 – 33.. and defensive rebounds 42 – 23.. that is too much. We got to be more aggressive in getting the rebounds in the next game.’

The coach of HNMKY (Dionne Pounds) would probable say ‘ Great job at working on defence and getting the rebounds, great team win for us. Also Meeri and Minka – great job at getting to the free-throw line at the crucial times – 14 points from the line between the two of you’

Two double-doubles in the game, those go to Minka Henriksson of HNMKY 19 points and 16 rebounds – add to that 5 assists and 2 steals. The other goes to Saara Rämö of HNMKY 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

Other stats leaders for HNMKY : Meeri Vappula 12 points, Ninni Mäkynen 11 points, Isla Sinikoski 8 rebounds.

For Tapiolan Honka : Ida Riihijärvi with 13 points. 5 assists and 5 steals, Moona Harju and Isabella Viljakainen 11 points and 7 rebounds, Lotta Tyynilä with 10 points.

Only going for these two teams, as there is still EBT-BC Nokia recap coming. After 10 games, HNMKY is THIRD in the league with 12 points, Tapiolan Honka having played a game less, with 9 games played are EIGHT with 6 points.