Friends lose first - but decisive - championship game

CAB and Sportiva decided the national champions of the Women's League. The Madeirans played the final title of the season for a composite and animated pavilion, which is the home of the Sportiva team and which registered a large audience presence supporting the local team. The game began best for the formation of the CAB, which, at an early stage, built a 2-7 advantage on the marker. Sportiva's response was not expected and came at the hands of Rosinha Rosario and Jhasmin Player, who tied the match in the 7 points. The CAB did not disarm and, maintaining a very strong presence in the caveats and a very cohesive collective spirit in the offensive aspects, managed to keep the result in 11-16, in its favor, with 2 minutes to play in the first period. After a discount of time requested by the home team bank, Sportiva tried to stop the CAB by mounting a defense to the area in 3x2 format. The strategy had some effect, with the CAB expressing some difficulty in adapting to the new defensive scheme of opponents. However, the Amigas managed to maintain their superiority and reached the end of the first time leading by 13-21, thanks to a ‘bomb’ of Joana Lopes' three points in the final seconds. In the second half, Sportiva came in very aggressive, trying to regain the punctual disadvantage over the Friends and managed to put the marker on 22-23. The CAB maintained its serenity and responded to the attack of Azoreans with intelligence, putting the scorer back on 25-31, with 4 minutes to play. After a discount of time requested by the Madeiran bank, the CAB showed a low yield. Feeling the bad timing of the opponents, Sportiva grabbed the rhythm of the game, and, with 1:30 minutes to play, passed ahead of the scorer by 34-31, fruit essentially of the good performance of his American athletes, authors of several triple releases. João Pedro Vieira did not like what he was seeing and asked for another time off to try to serene the CAB hosts. Until the break, the CAB reacted with points from Kristen Mann, Ashley Bruner and a triple sound from Carla Freitas' horn. All in all, the CAB collected the locker rooms to win by 38-37. However, it was clear to everyone that the game was open and that any of the two teams that were measuring forces within the field had a chance to win the game. On the return to the game, the CAB entered more aggressively and took the marker to 37-42. Sportiva responded with individual moves by Jhasmin Player, who centered the whole game of Azoreans, not leaving the difference of friends in the scorer to take on expressive numbers. In fact, with five minutes in the third half, Sportiva moved ahead and fixed the marker at 43-48. A time discount requested by the CAB did not immediately solve the problems that were being demonstrated by Madeiran athletes, and with 2:30 minutes to play, Sportiva continued ahead for 54-48. By the end of the third period, the CAB gave everything to react and cut the dominance of the players of the house, but it continued to miss too many releases, including free throws, which greatly penalized the Madeirans. However, the end of the third period arrived with the marker in 58-51, in favor of Sportiva. The fourth period began with Ashley Bruner making her fourth foul and with Sportiva extending the advantage to 63-51, to the delirium of a galvanized pavilion. After 3 minutes of the last time, the CAB marked its first basket and placed the points differential in the ten (63-53). However, the outer launch of Sportiva was very consistent and allowed the house to extend the advantage and the Azorean pavilion to feel the title. With 4 minutes to finish the game, the scorer was 75-55 for Sportiva, a difference of two dozen that the Azoreans had won meritorily and that punished the CAB's enormous inability to score points and to be true to their own style of play. By the end of the meeting, the Azorean team managed the advantage gained and was the just winner by 85-70. for the CAB, it is the end of a time when he won three of five possible titles, namely the Cup of Portugal, the Federation Cup and the Super Cup.