The women’s team of the Erasmus Basketball association Baros stumbled in the first round and are out of the running for the cup. They lost 39-47 on Saturday to the team US from Amsterdam. Both teams play in the Promotie Division, the second highest division in women’s basketball.
Around 20 spectators were on hand at the Woudestein sport hall for a classic basketball game between the rivals from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. US didn’t waste any time and was awarded two free throws after just 20 seconds of play, calmly scoring both times. Both teams were evenly matched after this. Baros took better advantage of scoring opportunities and led 10-8 after ten minutes.
Twelve-minute dry spell
In the second quarter the game swung in favour of the team from Amsterdam as Baros was fully outplayed. Three minutes before half-time the score was 10-21. The Rotterdam team had a twelve minute dry spell while their energetic opponents were almost scoring at will. Just before half-time Danique Clement ended the scoreless streak with two successful free-throws. Another basket made the score at the break 14-21.
Baros came out of the dressing room with a better attitude and the team fought back to make the score 26-29. However, they failed to draw level and once the lead was reduced to five points or less the Amsterdam players would bear down and manage to pull away. Thanks to a free throw in the dying seconds of the third quarter, Baros managed to limit the damage somewhat with the score 27-33.
Coach Selma Rooseboom gave her players a pep talk for the fourth quarter by shrugging off the situation with a joke: “Come on, ladies, in the third quarter we’ve doubled our total score from the first and second quarters.” The encouragement was effective as the score was 31-35 in the blink of an eye. Baros didn’t have the stamina to continue their efforts and the game ended in a 39-47 victory for US.
Holidays
Baros offered an unusual excuse for the loss. “Many of our players are still on their holidays,” said player Romy Horsten, first-year student of Medicine. “That’s why four of our five starting players were absent today. We felt it was more important that they play in the league competition that restarts in two weeks. In any case the players have to get used to playing with each other as only four players are still in the team from last year’s line-up.”
According to Horsten they missed too many scoring opportunities. “In previous games our offense was our strength and the problem was that we conceded too many points. In the last game they scored almost eighty against us. We played more defensively today and less of a pressing game. Our defensive play was effective but the offense suffered a bit. That was obvious in the second quarter when our play was very disorganised. We were playing too fast and we were unfocused.”
Baros also lost to US (55-64) in the league competition and the team has endured a poor start with only two points from four games. “But just like last season, we want to reach the Final Four,” says Horsten. “Hopefully then we can battle for the championship again.”
