Connect with us

May 16th-19th took place in Kuremaa, a city located some 20 miles from the Russian border in the Eastern part of Estonia, the Superfinal of the European Girls Basketball League (EGBL), the girls section of European Youth Basketball League (EYBL). The regular season was played over three weekends, in November, February and March. The 16 particpating teams were divided in two groups. Each weekend was staged in two different locations. At the end of these 3 weekends, where each team would play five games for a total of fifteen, the eight better ranked teams (not quite actually this year) qualified for the Superfinal. Once again BlueStarMedia was the only media present covering the event and being as usual as close as possible from the heart of action worldwide.

A little reminder concerning the EGBL. It was founded in the year 2000 by a small number of motivated and ambitious coaches from the Baltic States, Poland, Belarus and Russia on their own initiative. Their goal was to provide their players with the possibility of experiencing international competition as early as possible in order to optimize their development. The EGBL was created just 2 years after the equivalent Boys section, called EYBL (European Youth Basketball League), which was launched in 1998. What started with a limited number of countries has since evolved into a 30 countries-strong structure with competition covering 5 age categories from U12 to U19 for the girls and from U14 to U19 for the boys.

As mentioned above there were 16 teams representing 8 countries at the beginning of the season: Latvia was represented by BS Liepaja, BS Jugla, BS Ridzene and BS Riga TTP, Ukraine by Teiwaz Bagira, Finland by BC Nokia, Tapiolan Honka and West Coast All Stars, Czech Republic by SBS Ostrava and Slovan Litomerice, Poland by Pomerania, Estonia by BC Star, SC Audentes and Rapla BS, Belarus by SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie and Slovakia by Young Angels Academy Kosice. There could/should have been still seven countries competing at this Superfinal, unfortunately Kosice and Pomerania, ranked respectively 7th and 8th at the end of the regular season, couldn’t make the trip and were replaced by BS Jugla (9th) and BC Star (10th). Thus without teams from Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia, there were five nationalities left at this tournament: Finland (Tapiolan Honka, West Coast All Stars), Estonia (SC Audentes, BC Star), Belarus (SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie), Ukraine (Teiwaz Bagira) and Latvia (BS Ridzene, BS Jugla).

The eight teams were divided in two groups of four in a round robin format. The two top ranked teams advanced to the SF’s and the other two battled in a classification round. Besides for the game between Tapiolan Honka and SC Audentes which was decided in the dying minutes with a crucial final 6-0 run to seal the 8 pts victory for Honka, the group phase didn’t see any really close games and the four better teams qualified for the the semis without much trouble. Each of the four finalist had at least one dominant player, whether physically or skill wise, to either build wins on, either to stay in games. Prinemanie had the deeper roster with a trio of guards owning the court on both ends. They posted the clearest W against a top 4 team in group phase, seeing off Tapiolan Honka by 25 pts off a great shooting effort from distance and their usual efficient full court pressure. Although for most of the girls it’s already their third season playing in EGBL (which starts at U12), they’re still very young and many down sides to their game as of now, i.e tempo issue, static offenses, recognition difficulties, forced plays, numerous jumpballs, will at least partially be fixed. The motivation is there and visibly the work is being put in. It was also a good sign and a great thing to witness that no matter how big the margin was on the scoreboard, not once did a team surrender and stopped playing. Even down by 30 or more, each play was fully on. Unlike the group phase the SF’s and title match proved very indecisive, Prinemanie being more than challenged by Teiwaz Bagira in their SF, trailing until the start of Q4, not able to deal with Bagira’ size advantage and physical impact under the basket, but that was before a great last quarter effort on the defensive end to which Bagira found no answer and struggled to even cross the halfcourt. Again in the title match, though with a different scenario, Ridzene had two FT’s to tie the game against Prinemanie with less than 10sec remaining, after having trailed by as much as 14pts at halftime, unfortunately both were missed and Prinemanie survived a late scare to walk off as champions. Just as they did last year at the U13 level. Already against Ridzene. These two missed FT’s are a good opportunity to bring the topic of FT% efficiency. One of the first thing to put on the to-do list for all teams should be adressing the FT’s issue. Few teams reached the 50% regularly and more than once has this number been in the 30% on high volume attempts.

 

SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie

(74 ppg |15,2 apg | 16,2 topg | 24,8 spg | 45,8 rpg | 20,6 offrpg | 41,8% FG2 | 22,5% FG3 | 53,5% FT)

Already crowned champions last year in Riga at U13 level, Prinemanie again was a very deserving and good looking winner. The roster underwent some changes compared to last year with two forwards gone, but the addition of a very efficient guard/shooting guard allowed them to offer an often unsuperable defensive first line and a triple threat in offense from either outside either off inspired drives. From the very first day it was clear they would be the team to beat. Clearly the best team of the four semifinalists. Might have to do wiuth the fact that of all the teams present at the tournament they were the only one that was part of a special in-school basketball program, close to what a sport academy is. It it was pretty visible the girls spend much time practising and working their skills and knowledge of the game. They executed  their game very patiently and with great discipline, ran sophisticated yet unpretentious plays through well clean screens, shared the ball well. Their leading trio displayed plenty of basketball IQ and court-smartness, very much in control. But it was above all their defensive intensity, particularly a deadly full court pressure, that was the most harmful aspect of their game for their opponents. A third and even sometimes almost half of their points came from steals/turnovers leading to fastbreaks. That was the second crucial aspect to their game: above-average fastbreak/transition fundamentals. A real pleasure to watch them bring the ball up fast and efficiently. With two forwards less than last year, they were a bit underarmed in the paint but even if they got outrebounded, sometimes by huge margins, their capacity to counterbalance that with their defense, averaging more steals than the number of offensive rebounds they conceded to their opponents. Defense winning games once more. Overall a strong unit with multiple real ballers.

 

https://www.facebook.com/RidzeneBasketballGirls/photos/a.1867560380226485/2241924696123383/?type=3&theater

BS Ridzene

(59,4 ppg | 11,2 apg | 20 topg [ 10,6 spg [ 55,6rpg | 19,6 offrpg | 35,3% FG2 | 24,2% FG3 | 64% FT)

Much of Ridzene’s game gravitated around, through, by the action of one player. The supporting cast didn’t always get the chance to show what they were capable of, though they could count on a couple of solid and smart back-up options both in the backcourt and in the paint, by lack of having the ball in their hands. After a very average group phase, Ridzene waited for the SF against Tapiolan Honka to post their best game of the tournament based on a real team effort with three players finishing in double digits. They shared the ball and in better rhythm which led automatically to a higher percentage from FG3 (40%) and their tournament-high in assists (15). Not as skilled as Prinemanie, they still ran very mature and disciplined looking plays. In the title match after a difficult first half where forced plays and turnovers were too numerous, it is when their best player was on the bench that they launched their come back from 14 pts down. The players finally able to find some rhythm and confidence. Their two missed FT’s to send the game in overtime don’t take nothing away from the thrilling end of the game the two teams were offering.

 

Teiwaz Bagira

(52 ppg | 13,6 apg | 24,6 topg | 13,2 spg | 59rpg | 26,6 offrpg | 31,7% FG2 | 18,2% FG3 | 56,5% FT)

Teiwaz Bagira had an unbalnced chemistry on the court with a very strong inside game that unfortunately was not matched by their backcourt rotation. On the base of sole size edge and physical impact they were title contenders. Their SF against Prinemanie had the intensity and suspense of a final, and I think not many suspected they could shove Prinemanie the way they did, particularly in Q1. But they struggled too much with poor shot selection from mid-range and distance, didn’t control the tempo well and even their bigs struggled often to transform offensive rebounds into easy baskets. 32% FG2 & 18% FG3 for 52ppg, plus almost 25 topg leave much room for improvement. They totally collapsed in Q4 of their SF, turning the ball over 11 times, most of them before reaching the halfcourt line. Their forwards were no longer an impact. The battle of Forwards versus Guards was won by the smaller unit.

 

https://www.facebook.com/tapiolan.honka/photos/a.631704443569931/2695674457172909/?type=3&theater

Tapiolan Honka

(54 ppg | 9,6 apg | 24,8 topg | 9 spg | 52,6 rpg | 20,2 offrpg | 35,3% FG2 | 21,8% FG3 | 49,4% FT)

Similar to Bagira, Tapiolan Honka was led by a dominant and athletically gifted center. The supporting cast was capable but much less potent unfortunately. They struggled to control the rhythm of action, were very turnovers prone and febrile in crunch time. After understandably falling in group phase against Prinemanie by a big margin, they managed to move onto the last phase winning their do-or-die game against SC Audentes in the last two minutes, after a pretty even contest until then. In their SF against Ridzene, they had a plan to stop their best player but were counting on the other players not to step up their game, but they did. The pressure of the event plus the precise assignements prior to the game looked like they impacted their efficiency even more. They looked much more approximative in offense and were making many more poor decisions and bad finishes than usually. They still, as all the teams, fought until the end and almost came back in the second half

Counter to what I had put in my last tweet on location announcing the podium, Prinemanie is not located in Minsk but in Grodno. By chance it didn’t go unnoticed and the correction came very quickly from Belarus itself, in the shape of women’s basketball expert, Anastasia Utkina, engaging a conversation which eventually led, through the intervention of my colleague Paul Nilsen, to her gracing us with a deep and well documented piece on the importance of the city of Grodno, for women’s basketball in Belarus. It got published right here on BSM just over a week ago, if you haven’t yet, I highly suggest you treat yourself with this nice piece following this link: www.bluestarmedia.org/a-guest-blog-the-cradle-of-belarusian-basketball/

 

Group Phase

Group A (SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie-Belarus ; BC Star-Estonia ; Tapiolan Honka-Finland ; SC Audentes-Estonia)

SDJSOR Nr. 7 Prinemanie – BC Star  82 – 36

Tapiolan Honka – SC Audentes  51 – 43

SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie- Tapiolan Honka 79 – 54

SC Audentes – BC Star 50 – 15

BC Star – Tapiolan Honka 54 – 75

SC Audentes – SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie 50 – 82

——

1/ SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie 3-0

2/ Tapiolan Honka 2-1

3/ SC Audentes 1-2

4/ BC Star 0-3

 

Group B (BS Ridzene-Latvia ; BS Jugla-Latvia ; Teiwaz Bagira-Ukraine ; West Coast All Stars-Finland)

Teiwaz Bagira – BS Jugla 47 – 32

BS Ridzene – West Coast All-Stars 58 – 29

West Coast All-Stars – Teiwaz Bagira 27 – 54

BS Jugla – BS Ridzene 38 – 54

BS Jugla – West Coast All-Stars 55 – 36

Teiwaz Bagira – BS Ridzene 46 -59

——

1/ BS Ridzene 3-0

2/Teiwaz Bagira 2-1

3/ BS Jugla 1-2

4/ West Coast All Stars 0-3

 

Semifinals

SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie – Teiwaz Bagira 56 – 47

BS Ridzene – Tapiolan Honka 58 – 46

3rd place

Teiwaz Bagira – Tapiolan Honka 66 -46

Final

SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie – BS Ridzene 71 – 68

 

Final Standings

1/ SDJSOR Nr.7 Prinemanie (5W – 0L)

2/ BS Ridzene (4W – 1L)

3/ Teiwaz Bagira (3W – 2L)

4/ Tapiolan Honka (2W – 3L)

5/ SC Audentes (3W – 2L)

6/ BS Jugla (2W – 3L)

7/ West Coast All Stars (1W – 4L)

8/ BC Star (0W – 5L)

Related Topics

Born to Polish PE teachers/coaches parents, involvement with sport and basketball was never a question. Eastern attention to fundamentals, athleticism, discipline and hard work eventually met Western standards through his development in the French system. Now a former player with a passion for the women’s game going back for more than 25 years, he uses his knowledge to bring insights and perspective on women's basketball internationally - with a strong emphasis on Europe and player development.

More in Events