48-61: Spain back to winning ways on the way to Paris

After a loss to European champions Belgium the previous day, the Spanish women’s basketball team returned to winning ways this Saturday by defeating Canada 48-61 at the Dome in Charleroi, Belgium, in a friendly match for the Paris Games.

The game started with both sides’ offenses stalling, with the defense dominating on both ends of the court and the score just 2-2 after about four minutes of play. As time went on, the Spanish team made just 3 of 15 field goals and 1 free throw in the first 10 minutes against an opponent that had a lot of trouble scoring.

The current European runners-up had a similar record, but had Marianne Condé as their most successful player, which allowed her to finish the first quarter ahead (7-13).

Miguel Mendes’ team continued to improve and was up by nine points five minutes after the restart thanks to Marian Conde’s second triple. The Canadians, who were only one basket away from the midpoint of the second act, responded with a triple from Saira Sword to build a 7-0 (16-18) partial lead and close out the duel.

The game was evenly matched until halftime, when the Spanish team had a four-point lead thanks to some great success on the perimeter (23-27). The last two quarters decided everything, as Nira Fields, the top scorer of the game with 16 points, prevented the Spanish team from taking off.

The Spanish players struggled to get ahead and the Canadians were close (34-36, 27 min.), but a European spurt and some partial goals from 1-8 in the last three minutes of the third quarter put Miguel Mendes’ team on track to win (35-44, 30 min.).

Laura Gil and Leo Rodríguez helped Spain to go up by 10 points for the first time as soon as the final 10 minutes began. Seeing his players trailing by 14 points and scoring just 4 points in 5 minutes, Víctor Lapeña, the Spanish coach of the Canadian team – avoided bigger problems and called a timeout to ask his team to respond (53-39, 35 min.).

The panorama remained almost the same until the end of the match, with a comfortable 48-61 victory and a better feeling than the previous day’s match against Belgium. Spain will finish their preparations for the Paris tournament at the Segovia tournament from 22 to 24 July.

data sheet

Canada v Spain, 48-61

48 – Canada (7+16+12+13): Collie (3), Prosper (2), Achonwa (3), Alexander (4), Fields (16) – starting quintet, Hill (5), Ejim (3), Swords (3), Amihere (9).

61 – Spain (13+14+17+17): Cazorla (-), Casas (6), Gil (10), Conde (7), Ginzo (2) – starting five -, Ortiz (2), Torrens (22), Araujo (3), Romero (2), Leo Rodríguez (9), Vilaro (5), Hermosa (4).

Referees: G. Jacobs, M. Van Hoehe, J. Kisihiha. No rule of elimination.

The incident: A friendly match for the 2024 Paris Olympics was being played at the Charleroi Dome in front of a crowd of 400 people.