Suzy Batkovic (USVO) keeps the ball safe from Brno's Jana Vesela

Although from the final score this looks like a tight match-up from start to finish, Gambrinus JME only took the lead in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Valenciennes started with very tough precision play in defense and Brno didn´t know how to play against these tactics. After four minutes the French team was in leading 9:0 as Brno had problems with communication, they very often lost the ball and the first two points came from Jana Vesela only in the 5th minute. USVO allowed Brno absolutely no space or even air to breathe. The home team had to fight for every shooting possibility, whereas the Valenciennes side was able to find and take shots from everywhere on the court.

Brno coach Jan Bobrovsky tried to make changes by switching the players but only Zuzana Zirkova started with a good performance and with eight points was after first period the leading scorer for Gambrinus. For the Valenciennes team Belgian center Ann Wauters was the best player in first period with five rebounds while Audrey Sauret shot 8 points.

After the half-time break Brno tried everything, and managed to pull closer step by step with the help of Hana Machova, who shot four 3-pointers in a short time to narrow USVO's lead. In the 29th minute the score stood at 39:39 and Valenciennes started to get very nervous. In the third period both Brno centers Ivana Vecerova and Slovak Alena Kovacova played very well indeed and in defense Romana Hamzova was excellent. In the last quarter Brno stepped up their aggressivity once more and showed the necessary determination to take the win.

Two minutes before the end the score was 58:54 for Brno and Valenciennes tried to retake the game but the home team didn´t give their rivals the chance to return.

"It was very important victory for us. We improved our defense in the second half and that decided our success," commented Zuzana Zirkova after the game.

MVP of the game - Zuzana Zirkova (Gambrinus JME Brno)