Ural basketball players became Russian champions for the fifth time in a row

Basketball

Photo: Kommersant / Dmitry Lebedev / buy photo

UMMC leader Diana Taurasi (center) managed to score ten points, make six assists and four rebounds in the third match of the final series against Sparta & K even before the big break

Photo: Kommersant / Dmitry Lebedev / buy photo

The UMMC women's basketball club became the champion of Russia for the fifth time in a row and for the eighth time in its history. In the third match of the final, the team from Yekaterinburg beat Sparta & K near Moscow 84:68, bringing the series score to 3:0. Considering that the Foxes previously won the Russian Cup and the Euroleague, they can celebrate a hat-trick of sorts.

In recent years, in the finals of the Russian Championship, UMMC has invariably had to sort things out with Sparta & K. The current final was the fifth in a row, in which the title of the best team in Russia was contested by teams from Yekaterinburg and Vidnoye (in the previous four the Ural team was the winner). However, if you remember how difficult the first two meetings of the series, held in Yekaterinburg, became for the “foxes”, no, no, and there were doubts that UMMC would not only be unable to defend the championship title, but that it would win, as they say, without blood. After all, in the first match, in Yekaterinburg, the teams fought in earnest, and UGKM achieved victory only in the last seconds thanks to an accurate long-range throw by Candace Parker. In the second match, held at the same place, overtime was required to determine the winner. And in it, UMMC demonstrated that, if really necessary, the team can improve greatly - the home team won the extra five minutes with a score of 12:5.

After gaining such a tangible advantage, Olaf Lange's team had to remain focused, which was not so easy, given that they had a very difficult season behind them. And many basketball players of the Ural team, in fact, its entire American core - Diana Taurasi, Candice Parker, Sue Bird, Deanna Nolan, as they themselves later admitted, were already dreaming of a vacation. “But there was still no doubt that in the end we would win,” noted BC UMMC General Director Maxim Ryabkov. “The team was really motivated after the victories in the Russian Cup and the Euroleague to continue the winning streak. So there is no underestimation of the opponent and it couldn’t be.”

Fortunately for the Ural fans, the team really postponed their vacation plans until later. In Vidnoye, where the third match of the series took place, the guests simply strangled the Moscow Region basketball players from the very first minutes. At certain moments it seemed that Sparta & K simply had no strength left to resist. Apparently, they all remained in Yekaterinburg.

Much of the match became clear after the first quarter, which the guests won with a score of 30:13. After the second, the situation did not change much - 47:25. Diana Taurasi looked bright, who managed to score ten points, give out assists six times and make four rebounds before the big break. And then Sandrine Gruda went wild, hitting almost everything: 11 of her 15 shots were accurate, which allowed her to become the most productive in the match (23 points). Add Parker's 14 points, Sue Bird's 10 points, plus some other little things, and it turns out that Sparta & K had virtually no chance of salvation. Although we must give credit to the Moscow region team: they fought to the end, and won the final quarter with a clear advantage (32:13). But, apparently, only because the guests in the end had already switched to tactics of maintaining an advantage, in which they completely succeeded, scoring a hat-trick for the first time in the history of Russian women's basketball.

However, as Maxim Ryabkov noted, the team does not intend to stop there. “Yes, formally it is impossible to win more than three titles in a season. But this hat-trick can still be turned into poker. There is also a match ahead for the European Super Cup (in which the winner of the Euroleague and the winner of the European Cup meet), said Maxim Ryabkov.— The management of the club, represented by its president Andrei Kozitsyn (general director of UGMK-Holding LLC - Kommersant ) and vice-president Igor Kudryashkin, set the task of ensuring that the game takes place here, in Yekaterinburg."

As for the plans for recruiting the team for the next season, they, according to Mr. Ryabkov, were almost completely implemented in advance. “The changes will be minimal. At least the coaching staff and all the team leaders remain,” said the general director of BC UMMC.

Alexander Petrov

UMMC took its place in Vidnoye