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Great start for French clubs in EuroCupEuroCup action Day 1 Tarbes trailed for practically the whole match and got themselves out of jail deep into money-time with a haul of 3-pointers to tie the match at (78-78). Cab Madeira still had the chance to win the game but Danielle Hutcheson (19 points) turned the ball over. Laura Savasta went for the trey which did not drop but Alex Kusion was on hand to take the offensive rebound and tap in for the game (80-78). She was fouled while scoring but missed the final free throw. Tarbes collectively shared the scoring with Gisela Vega’s 22 points, also pulling down six boards, whereas Liz Moeggenberg had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Kristen Mann and Savasta finished with 13 and 12 points respectively. Montpellier made light work of EXMA BBTL from Luxembourg with a routine victory (86-57). Grace Daley scored 23 points to lead her sides’ scoring while three other players all had 16 points: Aurélie Bonnan, Sandra Dijon and Elodie Bertal. Challes-les-Eaux had to dig deep in coming back against the Rhondda Rebels on their own turf to win (75-70). Martina Gandzalova (24 points) scored 14 points as the team from Wales rushed out to an early lead (25-14) after the first period. The Rebels increased their advantage to 15 points early in the second period and looked in control. Laina Badiane had other ideas and started the revolt. So by the interval Challes-les-Eaux had a lead of a single point (45-44). Challes-les-Eaux took full advantage of their opponents’ poor finishing in the third period to take a 7-point lead into the final quarter and did enough to hold on for victory. Badiane and Martina Luptakova finished with 18 points and Jessica Davenport had 16 rebounds and contributed 8 points. Tiffany Jackson did not play. A victory at last for Aix-en-Provence but did they made hard work of it in their away match. Early foul problems for their opponents, 08 Stockholm, allowed Erik Lahmann’s team to open a significant gap (18-9) after the first period. The gap increased to 15 points (23-8) early in the second period. The home side then doubled up in defence which almost put a hold to Aix-en-Provence’ offensive action as they slowly reduced the gap over the rest of the second and the whole of the third period to trail by only 4 points (43-39). The game was tied on three occasions during the final quarter before the 08 Stockholm managed to take the lead (51-50). Magali Lacroix made what turned into the game’s deciding interception of a poor pass by Nina Bärlin (14 points). Ines Kresovic was at hand to conclude the action as a result of Lacroix’s steal to put her teame back in front for good as they finally won (58-53). Nathalie Lesdema was the only other player to reach double digits in this match with 12 points for the winners but she was out-shown by the display of Kristen Sharp, better known as KB Sharp, who finished with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
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