The big difference in rebounds (21 - 41) can help to explain the clear victory of Baltiyskaya Zwezda over C.A.B. Madeira on Wednesday evening.
Since the first minute, the Russian team proved to have better arguments to win this match. Moving the ball very fast, with a good variation between inside and outside game (Ioulia Mironova made 3/3 from three points line), the Baltiyskaya Zwezda soon took the lead in the scoreboard, shown at the score of 18-36 after the first quarter.
In the second period, the defense of the Portuguese team improved and the offensive players Carla Bennet and Treva Christensen appeared in the game and helped their team to again come into play. At half time, the score was 42-50.
In the third quarter, Elen Shakirova (24 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocked shots) and Elizateva Kityzina (12 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocked shots) continued with their excellent performance on cleaning the boards. On the opposite side Fátima Silva (27 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) was trying to keep her team alive, with several 3 point shots.
With 5:47 minutes left, the game was nearly over when C.A.B. Madeira lost their last big player still on the court with the 5th fault (63-85 on the scoreboard). Both teams knew that Baltiyskaya Zwezda were the winners and just let the minutes pass.The final score was 70-98.
