Defending Champions Win At Polkowice

Avenida's Dewanna Bonner was simply unstoppable, posting a double-double in points and rebounds

The season is young, but so far Perfumerias Avenida have done nothing but win.

Without most of the players who led the side to a EuroLeague Women and Liga Femenina double earlier this year, the Salamanca club opened the 2011-12 campaign with victories over last defending EuroCup Women champions Elitzur Ramla in the SuperCup, and then defeated Rivas Ecopolis in the Spanish SuperCup.

On Thursday in Poland, they pulled away from CCC Polkowice in the second half and won 74-52 to get their EuroLeague Women title defense off on the right foot.

Lucas Mondelo's Avenida trailed 36-35 with 8:27 to go after a basket by Iva Perovanovic but a DeWanna Bonner jumper one minute later put the Spanish club in front to stay.

Bonner had eight points in the quarter as Avenida went in front by as many as seven.

A Marissa Coleman jump shot gave the visitors a 49-43 advantage heading to the last quarter.

CCC Polkowice, playing in the EuroLeague Women for the first time, fell further behind when Marta Fernandez hit a driving lay-up and Lucila Pascua buried a jumper.

Twice the hosts closed the gap to eight.

Perovanovic, the EuroBasket Women's leading scorer this summer in Poland while playing for Montenegro, hit a short jumper to cut the Avenida lead to 53-45 and Agata Gajda nailed a three-ball to reduce the arrears to 58-50 with 5:54 remaining.

That was as close as Polkowice would get.

Marta Xargay's jumper sparked a 14-0 run for Avenida as they put an exclamation mark on their triumph.

Bonner finished with a game-high 21 points and 13 rebounds, with Fernandez the only other Avenida player in double digits scoring, with 18.

Fernandez also came up with four of her team's 13 steals.

For Polkowice, Russian guard Valeriya Musina had 12 points and Gajda 11.

Evina Maltsi had a rough start to her EuroLeague Women campaign with Polkowice.

The Greek guard missed all nine of her shots from the floor and finished with just two points from the free-throw line.

CCC Polkowice vs. Perfumerias Avenida quotes

Perfumerias Avenida Head Coach Lucas Mondelo:
"The final score does not reflect the game. For a long time the match was even. I had often to rotate composition. CCC Polkowice is appreciated very highly. This is a good team that can make a difference in the EuroLeague Women, I wish them every success."

Perfumerias Avenida player Marta Fernandez:
"For me it was nice to come back to Poland. I played here for three years and I've got good memories of this country, of this gym too. This was a really hard game for us. I'm really happy that we won, the first game is always very important."

CCC Polkowice Head Coach Krzysztof Koziorowicz:
"For three quarters we were equal rivals, but Salamanca still controlled the game. In the fourth quarter we played poorly. We ran out of power. It is a pity that we lost, but remember that we played with the EuroLeague Women champion, and for us it was the first match."

CCC Polkowice player Gintare Petronyte:
"We made a lot of mistakes and this was the main reason of our loss. We made too many turnovers, 19 is too much. This was the first game. I hope the next games will be better for us."

CCC Polkowice vs. Perfumerias Avenida quotes

Perfumerias Avenida Head Coach Lucas Mondelo:
"The final score does not reflect the game. For a long time the match was even. I had often to rotate composition. CCC Polkowice is appreciated very highly. This is a good team that can make a difference in the EuroLeague Women, I wish them every success."

Perfumerias Avenida player Marta Fernandez:
"For me it was nice to come back to Poland. I played here for three years and I've got good memories of this country, of this gym too. This was a really hard game for us. I'm really happy that we won, the first game is always very important."

CCC Polkowice Head Coach Krzysztof Koziorowicz:
"For three quarters we were equal rivals, but Salamanca still controlled the game. In the fourth quarter we played poorly. We ran out of power. It is a pity that we lost, but remember that we played with the EuroLeague Women champion, and for us it was the first match."

CCC Polkowice player Gintare Petronyte:
"We made a lot of mistakes and this was the main reason of our loss. We made too many turnovers, 19 is too much. This was the first game. I hope the next games will be better for us."