Euroleague 5/2008 - Ros Casares 83, Sibenik 72

Kerri Gardin drives through Ros Casares.

The first round of Euroleague is half-over. In Euroleague, the best teams of Europe are moved into four mini-leagues of six teams each. Each team in a group of six plays its fellow group members once at home, and once away.

Ten games, total and five games are played.

For Ros Casares (3-2), the goal was simple - move into second place. If Prague beats Union Hainaut tomorrow - and it will, most likely - El Ros would seize second place in Group C for the time being. Ros Casares finished the first part of that proposition, beating Sibenik (2-3) 83-72 at Sibenik in front of a crowd of 460 spectators.

Ros Casares jumped out to a 19-11 lead after the first quarter, and extended the lead to 17 points at the half, 37-20. From that moment on, all home team Sibenik could do was chip away here and there at Ros Casares's lead. Unfortunately for Sibenik, there was too much chipping to do and not enough time to do it.

The writeup is here. Coach Isma Cantó of Ros Casares was happy with the fact that Sibenik was held to 20 first half points.

The boxscore is here. There's also a mini-gallery near the writeups, so you're never at a loss for pictures.

El Ros outshot Sibenik 46 percent to 36 percent. There wasn't much space for Sibenik to fight their way back from than. Ros Casares won the battle of offensive and defensive rebounding, and poor Sibenik hit exactly many free throws as the visiting squad (17). The only reason Sibenik didn't lose by more was that Ros Casares turned the ball over 29 times. (It appears that Sibenik was playing some very good defense of its own.)

Leading the way for Sibenik was Ivana Jurcevic with 20 points, and Kerri Gardin with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Gardin saw limited playing time this year with the Connecticut Sun. Marta Cakic would contribute 11 points, and Constance Jinks, a graduate of UNLV, added eight points.

Five players scored in double figures for Ros Casares. Rolling the high numbers were standout Amaya Valdemoro with 24 points and five assists. Delisha Milton-Jones would score 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Erika de Souza would score 12 points and eight rebounds.