News

Juniors lose to Runa at the start

The UMMC-Junior team faced a tough opponent at the start of the national championship. Before the Super League match in Moscow, the teams had already fought in the qualifying stage of the Russian Cup, and two weeks ago, the Moscow team won the encounter in Chelyabinsk. Since then, Runa managed to win the Berlin Cup and defeat the Premier League team Samara in the first match of the 1/8 finals of the National Cup. Therefore, the result of today's game was, in fact, predictable.

Runa Moscow – UMMC-Junior Ekaterinburg 87:59
Quarters’ results: 21-10, 21-20, 18-11, 27-18

Already at the start of the encounter, the hosts made a stunning lead - 15:0, which determined the further outcome of the entire match. It’s worth mentioning that our team didn’t get disheartened by the impressive gap in the score, they pulled themselves together and by the first short break after Margarita Galenko’s long-range hit, reduced it to 9 points – 19:10. And at the beginning of the second quarter, they managed to completely stun their experienced opponent, immediately winning back 7 points of difference. Thanks to long-range shots by Margarita Kuziakina and Daria Kamasheva, the “Foxes” were able to cut the gap in the score to 4 points – 25:21. But the players of Tatyana Fefilova still failed to develop further success. After a timeout for Runa, Yulia Savukova and Anastasia Sushchik brought the guests back to the final difference of the first quarter – 11 points (34:23). Despite the fact that it was an equal and tough struggle in the remaining minutes before halftime, the total gap of the “orange” was 12 points by halftime – 42:30.

After switching sides, the situation on the court didn’t change. At the end of the third ten-minute period, the centers of the Moscow team, Victoriya Scherbakova and Kristina Bakaeva, brought Runa’s lead to 19 points – 58:39.

In the final ten-minute period, UMMC-Junior made another attempt to get back in the game. Daria Sidorova immediately earned 6 points in a row, and Victoria Davydova consolidated the successful advance of the “orange” squad with a long-range hit - 66:52. However, a full-fledged comeback did not happen. The guests had some good scoring periods during the encounter, but the team of Viktor Danilov won the game – 87:59.

In the squad of UMMC-Junior Margarita Kuziakina became the top-scorer. She scored 11 points and collected 4 rebounds. Nina Ulchenkova earned 9 points with 100 percent shooting. Viktoria Davydova finished the game with 9 points and 6 rebounds.

UMMC-Junior Head Coach Tatyana Fefilova:

- That wasn’t a successful match. And the result, unfortunately, is not the one we would like to get. Our start affected it; we spent too much time looking for our game. Eventually, we were able to pull ourselves together and played well at the end of the first quarter and the second.

After halftime, our team play didn’t work out, we played more on ourselves. We didn’t rebound well and this influenced the result. Moreover, playing against an experienced opponent, we made mistakes in defense. In the near future, we will work on the defense and make adjustments.

UMMC-Junior will play the next match on October 6 on the road, meeting with Kazanochka. The game starts at 20:00 Yekaterinburg time.