Spanish League Round 15: A campaign against Perfumerias?

We head into Round 15 of the Liga Femenina with a little spicy controversy involving Perfumerias.  Perfumerias has been in the league a long time and is the only team participating in Euroleague out of Spain this year.

But Perfumerias has had some bad results recently.  They lost a rematch against Girona in Round 14 on January 11th, and lost to Nadezhda Orenburg in Russia on the 14th. 

Club director Carlos Mendez claims that there is a campaign to keep Perfumerias from succeeding.  These were his remarks after the Round 15 match against Cadi La Seu:

"I'm seeing lately that does not have any respect for this team and I say it openly. Internal Comments referees who make me seem disrespectful and nobody does anything, comments that our technicians are said by the referees and no nothing, and opinions that tell our players during games and nobody does anything.  All I ask is that you respect my team like other teams. That's all I ask. And not being done."

What he's saying (according to a Spanish speaking friend) is that the refs are making comments to coaches that are out of place and also making comments to players in the middle of games.  Mendez didn't elaborate.

He implied that there is a push to give the Copa de la Reina back to Madrid.  He's calling for the referees to be fair, since 5000 fans are watching the team.

Whether the LFB has anything to say about this is unknown at the time of posting.  It might be very interesting in the Liga Femenina in the future, particularly where Perfumerias is concerned.

And now, on to Round 15....


Gran Canaria 79, Rivas Ecopolis 49

It seems to be one step forward and two steps back for Rivas Ecopolis (6-9).  After a good run of results in the LFB and a threat to hit .500 for the season, they travel to the islands of Gran Canaria (5-10) and lose by 30 points.

Rivas started out slow and just got slower, down by eight after one quarter, down 19 at halftime and down 31 after three quarters.  A 15-0 run by Gran Canaria in the third quarter pretty much finished off any hope of a comeback.  Rivas shot a horible 27 percent for the game and were outrebounded 47-26.

Robyn Parks led Gran Canaria with 22 points and 7 rebounds.   Iris Junio added 18 points and Vega Gimeno added 12.  Samarie Walker had 8 points but 19 rebounds for Gran Canaria.

The only player to score in double digits for Rivas was Angela Salvadores with 12 points, shooting 4-for-12.  Lyndra Weaver had just four points on 2-for-12 shooting and Lady Comfort had 4 points on 1-for-6 shooting.

Some clips of Iris Junio's performance from YouTube:

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Lyndra Weaver knew that it wasn't a good game.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I don&#39;t mind taking full responsibility... I was horrible tonight</p>&mdash; Lyndra L. (@L_Littles) <a href="https://twitter.com/L_Littles/status/556589350675578880">January 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Gernika 68, Zamarat 53

This game was televised on Spanish television, which made it a pretty big deal.  Gernika (9-6) remained in the playoff hunt with 15 point road victory against Zamarat (6-9).

Zamarat seemed to be ready for prime time taking a 6-0 lead, but Gernika answered with an 11-0 run.  Zamarat's problem was that they only shot 32 percent from the floor.  Their lack of offensive punch forced them to lose ground in every quarter, and by the end of three quarters they were down by 17 points.

For Zamarat, the only players in double figures were Sofia Gomes with 17 points/8 rebounds and Daria Mieloszynska-Zwolak with 12 points.  Maria Manzanaries had 9 points/10 rebounds in the loss.  Caroline Durbin had zero points and went 0-for-3 in 17 minutes of play.

Gernika was led by Bernice Mosby with 24 points and 14 rebounds.  Mosby is the leading scorer in the LFB so far this season, averaging 20+ points a game.  Claudia Pop had 15 points.  Britany Miller contributed 8 points/5 rebounds in 20 minutes of play.

Note: Zamarat staff and players wore shirts in honor of their former coach Juan de Mena, who left the team for undisclosed reasons believed due to health.

There were about 700 Zamarat fans and 30 Gernika fans.


Conquero 59, Gipuzkoa UPV 46

Conquero (13-2) had no trouble goint on the road and getting the road win against Gipuzkoa UPV (5-10).

It's hard to determine where Conquero picked up the win, as both teams shot fairly evenly.  Gipuzoa UPV did turn the ball over more, and Conquero took more shots overall.  It still counted as a "game without a history" as Conquero won every quarter, even a fourth quarter where both teams struggled to combine for 20 points.  (Conquero won that one 12-8.)

Maria Gomez led Gipuzkoa UPV with 13 points/8 rebounds.  The only other player for Gipuzkoa UPV scoring in double figures was Lenita Sanford with 12 points/10 rebounds.

Conquero's trio of imports - Chelsea Davis (18/9 rebounds), Adaora Elonu (14/7 rebounds) and Aja Parham (4) combined for 36 of Conquero's 59 points.  Lucila Pascua had 5 points/8 rebounds in 18 minutes of play.

Chelsea Davis shared a tweet. "Black power" is how Conquero advertised the trio of Davis/Elonu/Parham at the beginning of the season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>&quot;Black Power&quot; before going home for christmas break. <a href="http://t.co/XMNqJf6lvq">http://t.co/XMNqJf6lvq</a></p>&mdash; Chelsea Davis (@ChelsDavisFSU) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChelsDavisFSU/status/556676810285797376">January 18, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Girona 78, Bembibre 70

Girona (14-1) managed to hang on to the undisputed #1 spot in the Spanish League with a 78-70 win over Bembibre (8-7). 

How did they do it?  With a 29-9 second quarter against home team Bembibre, taking a 46-31 lead at halftime.  There were separate runs by Girona of 10-0 and 8-0.  That was enough for Girona to give away the other three quarters by slim margins but it almost fell apart in the final quarter where Bembibre closed to just two points at 70-68. 

It was a high-shooting affair where Girona shot 60 percent for the game, and they got sent to the free throw line 22 times.  Even though they only hit 14 shots, Bembibre only got six free throw visits.

Ariel Edwards led Bembibre with 16 points.  Rita Montenegro scored 15 points and Anna Gomez had 11 points.  Roso Buch had 7 points and 7 assists for Bembibre.

Four players scored in double figures for Girona. There were two double-doubles - Ify Ibekwe with 20 points/10 rebounds and Vanessa Gidden with 15 points/10 rebounds.  Anna Carbo had 15 points and Noemi Jordana finished with 14.  Brittany Chambers played a full 40 minutes, finishing with 7 points and 3 rebounds.

Perfumerias 65, Cadi La Seu 58

It was a match between two of the top four teams in Spain, and Perfumerias (13-2) has struggled recently.  At home in front of 4500 fans, they managed to get the win against visiting Cadi La Seu (10-5) despite any problems with referees mentioned by general manager Carlos Méndez.

It was a real struggle for Perfumerias to get on track after a cold start which found them down 16-4 in the early game.  A 10-2 run in the first quarter helped them recover somewhat.  It was a very physical game early on but Perfumerias had more offense in the second half and absolutely dominated 54-16 (!!) on the boards.

So why didn't Perfumerias just dominate with such powerful rebounding? Because they turned the ball over 27 times to just eight for Cadi La Seu.

Four players for Perfumerias had double figures in scoring.  Marija Rezan had 16 points/17 rebounds.  Angelica Robinson finished with 15 points/11 rebounds.  Shay Murphy only played for 15 minutes, scoring just five points.

Ben Hind led Cadi La Seu with 16 points.  Ana Suarez and Marlou De Kleijn had 10 points each.  Tyrese Tanner finished with 8 points in 17 minutes of play.

Ferrol 60, Al-Qazeres 57

In a match between two of the lower level teams of the Liga Femenina, Ferrol (6-9) barely edged past bottom-feeder Al-Qazeres (3-12).

This was a game pretty much dominated by DeNesha Stallworth and Haley Peters of Ferrol.  Ferrol had a 46-35 lead at one time but they gave up a run late in the third that closed Al-Qazeres to 48-44 at the end of three quarters.  Ferrol led 58-51 with a minute to play but Al-Qazeres hit a couple of three pointers to close to 58-57 with nine seconds left.

But DeNesha Stallworth hit both of her free throws.  Al-Qazeres had one last shot, but Andrea Vilaro's 3-point attempt failed to hit the rim.

DeNesha Stallworth led Ferrol with 18 points/9 rebounds and Haley Peters had 17 points/9 rebounds to carry the load for Ferrol.

Karla Gilbert had 11 points and Jennifer George had 10 points/11 rebounds for Al-Qazeres.  Callan Taylor had 2 points in 22 minutes of play on 1-for-4 shooting.

Mann Filter 81, Campus Promete 61

The last game of Round 15 was on Sunday and it wasn't much of a contest as Mann Filter (4-12) avoided landing at the bottom of the league with a convincing home win against Campus Promete (3-11).  The win ends a 9-game losing streak by Mann Filter.

Mann Filter won every quarter of this game.  Mann Filter sent Campus Promete to the free throw line 22 times - they hit 18 - but the key to Mann Filter's victory was 3-point shooting.  The winning home squad was 10-for-22 from behind the arc; Campus Promete was 1-for-9.

Yvonne Turner led Mann Filter with 22 points.  Melisa Gretter had 15 points and 4 assists in the win.  Three other players finished in double-digits for Mann Filter.

Paula Estebas led Campus Promete with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting.  Adrijana Knezevic had 12 points (but four turnovers) and Amina Njonkou had 11.  Chanel Mokango had 6 points in 25 minutes of play and Leslie Knight had 9 points/4 rebounds in 15 minutes of play.

Round 16 (January 23-25)

*Gran Canaria (5-10) @ Ferrol (6-9)
*Perfumerias (13-2) @ Al-Qazeres (3-12)
Bembibre (8-7) @ Cadi La Seu* (10-5)
Mann Filter (4-11) @ Girona* (14-1)
*Gipuzkoa UPV (5-10) @ Campus Promete (3-12)
Zamarat (6-9) @ Conquero* (13-2)
Rivas Ecopolis (6-9) @ Gernika* (9-6)

* - won previous meeting