Nantes Take A Precious Win In Slovakia

Isis Arrondo finished the game with 14 points

A strong defensive performance by Nantes Reze facilitated an impressive and vital 56-51 road win at MBK Ruzomberok in game one of their EuroCup Women quarter-final.

The French visitors always had the upper hand in the game and looked the most likely to emerge with a victory, but they sealed their success by throwing a blanket over the offence of their hosts during the final ten minutes of the game when they only gave up a paltry nine points.

Nantes took an early 25-18 advantage through a score from behind the three-point line by Isis Arrondo and she would go on to have an impressive outing with more timely interventions.

By the time the third quarter came around, the home side had worked their way back into things, a score from Katarina Tetemondova levelling matters and then Klaudia Lukacovicova giving Ruzomberok a rare lead at 42-40.

However, Arrondo again struck from long range to swing the momentum back the way of Nantes as the final quarter beckoned.

Giving up too many second chance points was beginning to hurt the hosts and with another triple dropping in the favour of Nantes via Yuliya Andreyeva, they fell behind 56-49 with a couple of minutes left on the game clock.

Whilst Nantes also dried up offensively and didn't score again, Ruzomberok couldn't make up the deficit and could only make one further basket themselves via Tetemondova.

Arrondo and Andreyeva combined for 30 points for Nantes, whilst Gunta Basko-Melnbarde had 12 rebounds.

Nadia Parker had 13 points and eight rebounds for the losing team.