Round 9 didn't seem to offer any close ones, but still couple of notes about Round 9 matches:
WAG vs. RAJ 121-132:
In this high-scoring affair RAJ was able to even up the all-time winning record between the teams to 1-1 (after suffering 4 point defeat on Season 1) in a match that was, strangely enough, played in Iisalmi, Finland (neutral court, really?;). Even large crowd of cheering WAG fans were not enough to make this a close call, as it was clear during the whole match practically that RAJ will travel back to Poland with 2 points in their pocket. While RAJ lost the competition on charity stripe (76 vs. 91%), they were shooting FG at 58% (and choosing an offensive tactics that was able to outplay my tactical choice) which is usually a guaranteed way to victory unless there are some big differences on other statistical categories, and that was the case yesterday as well.
HB vs. D 112-97:
15 point difference on the score table at the end, which was only 9 before the 4th. HB seemed to choose a good tactics compared to D's defense tactics (and guess on opponents' offensive focus), which led them to score 18 more points behind the 3 point arc than their opponent. While HB lost rebounds by 9 and blocks by 6, HB having 9 to 1 (!) assists to turnovers-ratio and finishing in a clinical manner from the free throw line (26 out of 27!) ensured that due to HB's win Sweden-Spain matchup records in HGL stands at 1-0 currently.
SUM vs. EOS 104-87:
In a battle of Nordic teams, strong SUM team was able to get 13 more second chance FG attempts than their opponent (and won total rebounds by 19), and had a 7-1 edge on blocks. 8 players from SUM scored 9 points or more, so they were hard team to defend as so many players have some (or a lot of) offensive capability. (That´s actually the story in a regular BB league as well for SUM, as 8th best scorer in their team on this Season 69 has scored 10.2 ppg in their "regular BB league", Suomi II.4). Shooting-wise the percentages were somewhat similar on both teams, but SUM had 19(!) more FG attempts than EOS, which was one of the key factors in my opinion in terms of winning the match.
VPO vs. ED 91-78:
ED wasn't too far from offering another upset on consecutive rounds, this time against a team with a perfect 8-0 record, as they actually led the match by 2 before the 4th quarter. A heat of the Mexico (yes, a long way for both teams to play a match, but luckily HGL covers the travel costs;) was too much for the ED this time around, as they lost the 4th by 15 points. Heat didn't cause shooters to be on fire though, as both teams had a very cold shooting night behind the arc; ED at 0% (0 out of 10!) and VPO at 19% (3 out of 16). Even though ED shot extremely well from the free throw line (22 out of 23), giving VPO 9 more second chance attempts (than they were able to get themselves) was too much for them to handle.
Last edited by Wagner at 8/12/2025 6:14:04 AM