NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C.— Coach Kelly Sopak described his Cal Stars team’s win over the Indy Lady Gym Rats as a “relief” following their 78 – 47 EYBL championship game win.
“We were here two years ago and had a poor performance and you never know if, or when, you might ever get back.”
Despite coming in with an unblemished record the Stars mentor knew the road wouldn’t be easy.
“It was tough and you always worry about the teams that might get hot when they get here at Nike Nationals.”
That observation might be a reflection of that undefeated record taking a hit in the first round as the eventual champs fell convincingly to the defending EYBL title holders from the Cal Storm by a 79 – 61 margin. In that game the usually high scoring Stars shot an uncharacteristic 30.6 percent from the floor on their way to their only loss of the EYBL campaign.
Sopak said he knew a loss was coming.
“As much as you don’t want it to happen it wasn’t the worst thing in the world for us to have it happen. As I looked around the room you could see they each felt some sort of relief and were already looking forward to the next game.”
The Storm loss was followed by seven more wins by an average margin of 31.2 points per game with the closest being a “close” 18 point nail biter with Tree of Hope.
Sopak went on to reflect on what the win might mean to the Stars.
“It’s something they’ll remember the rest of their lives. It’s really remarkable to look at the sacrifices all of them made to come together and make this happen. Each of them has the talent and opportunities to play for many other teams and then you have a player like Sabrina (Ionescu) who forgoes USA Basketball competition this summer to be here and part of this.”
When asked what he was feeling reflecting on the EYBL run after the championship win Sopak smiled and said he had moved from “relief” to “overjoyed”. Deservedly so.
The championship game with the Gym Rats was a rematch of a single possession game from round two of EYBL competition in Nashville earlier in the month. On paper the table looked to be set for another down to the wire barnburner. Unfortunately for Danny Riego’s squad things didn’t quite shake out that way. With the Star’s offense hitting on all cylinders, the Gym Rats cooled off at the wrong time shooting 37 percent as a team from the floor in the final. Even more telling was that top scorers Dana Evens and Jackie Young finished with 15 and 14 points respectively but could only muster 31.5 and 30.7 percent shooting for the game.
The Stars had no trouble with the frosty gym in North Augusta as they were 58.8 percent from the field and even more impressive finishing 8 of 13 from behind the arch. Sabrina Ionescue continued her impressive play posting 16 points while dishing out 9 assists along the way. Aquira Decosta led the scoring with 16 that came as the result of an 8 for 16 performance from the floor. Oregon bound post Mallory McGuire had a strong second half and joined Ionescu and Decosta in double figures with 10.
The Gym Rats led early as the team’s worked to get their legs back under them after a short break following the morning semifinals. The Stars got their first lead at the 10:07 mark of the first and pushed it to double figures at 25 – 15 with 5:55 remaining in the first half forcing Reigo to call a time out to stop the bleeding. At the break the margin stood at 12 with Stars holding the 35 – 23 advantage and momentum.
Ionescu had 9 in the half while Minyon Moore added 7 and Decosta chipped in 6. The Gym Rats got 8 from Young, six from Karissa Mclaughlin and 4 more from Evans.
The second half saw the Stars come out of the gate quickly extending their lead to 20 before the 10 minute mark and from there they never looked back grabbing the second annual Nike EYBL Championship by a 31 point margin, 78 – 47.
On their way to the title the Stars averaged 74.2 points per game. Even more eye catching is the 49.7 percent they shot as a team from the floor over the course of eight games. The scoring barrage comes on the heels of 87 points per game in round one and an average of 77 following the combined 10 games leading up to Nike Nationals.
Check back with Blue Star Media for more EYBL and Nike National coverage in the coming days. Below are images from the other 22 teams who qualified for Augusta and how they fared this week.
