Douglas Sparks Nadezhda In Win Over Sopron

Nadezhda trailed by a point going into the fourth quarter but outscored UNIQA-Euroleasing Sopron 21-7 the rest of the way to claim a crucial win in the EuroLeague Women on Wednesday in Orenburg.

Katie Douglas poured in 10 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter as the Russian club prevailed in the Group B clash, 64-51.

Nadezhda, who got another gritty effort from Rebekkah Brunson, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds, improved to 5-3 while Sopron slumped to 3-5.

Douglas, one of the leading players in the competition since beginning her EuroLeague Women career in 2005 with Lietuvos Telekomas Vilnius, put the hosts on their way to victory with a three-ball at the start of the last quarter.

After point guard Ekaterina Ruzanova caught a pass from Brunson and nailed a jumper, Ruzanova picked out Douglas on the perimeter and the American again struck from behind the arc for a 51-44 Nadezhda lead.

Sopron's 1.86m forward Olexandra Kurasova interrupted the run with a three-pointer to close the gap to four, but Douglas went to the other end and hit another jumper.

The visitors once more reduced the deficit to four with a basket from Dora Horti, but Nadezhda had the wind in their sails.

Brunson and Douglas followed with jumpers and Ruzanova added a shot from long range for a 60-49 advantage.

Nadezhda ended up winning by 13 to strengthen their grip on third place in the group.

Anastasiya Verameyenka contributed 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for Nadezhda.

Kurasova had 16 points in defeat.

Quotes Nadezhda vs. UE Sopron

UE Sopron Head Coach Norbert Székely
"First of all, my congratulations to the coach of Nadezhda. The two teams are different physically. We lost in rebounds. We had a game plan before the game and changed defence several times but at the end it didn't work out, but we are a young team and sometimes things work out and sometimes not. The last two weeks we played many top games in the Hungarian Championship and in the EuroLeague Women and tonight is our first loss within this time period. Again, congratulations to the head coach, whose tactics in last 4 minutes made Nadezhda win the game. We had no more defence plays in stock and Nadezhda's coach had, and this helped them win."

Nadezhda Head Coach Alexander Kovalev
"The game was not an easy one and not the most beautiful one. We made many mistakes on defence, however, generally speaking, the defence did its job: the opponent scored only 51 points on us and this is very few. Sopron team tried to play very tough physical basketball and we tried to react with speed attacks and we succeeded. We were faster and more aggressive. And besides, we had something for defence at stock, this was our ace in the hole, and this worked out at the end of 4th quarter of the game."

UE Sopron player Olexandra Kurasova
"Tonight both teams played different basketball. We didn't have enough speed. The two minutes before the end of the third quarter were decisive for the game. Unfortunately, we lost in rebounds and had many turnovers. After second quarter in a big break the coach told us what should be done but we failed to follow his instructions. We just ran out of strength."

Nadezhda player Katie Douglas
"Both teams played under the sense of urgency. We played at home and we knew we must win at home but we had turnovers, made mistakes. We gave credit to the opponent but we were trying to win. We tried different defence and we hunt for a win and played tough. We played very good team game in the 4th quarter and gave each other the opportunity to perform and make her job. Sopron tried to defend me differently and they tried to limit my touches. However we were single with the team and made good job at the end of the game."