LFB (Spain) 25/2008 - Ros Casares 99, Hondarribia 75

When you have a commanding lead in the Liga Feminina - Ros Casares is 24-1 with just one more regular season game to go - what do you do? Do you give the other players on your roster more minutes against Hondarribia (12-13), the last good team Ros Casares will play in the regular season? Or do you go all out and establish a foundation of winning?

No player on Ros Casares played more than 30 minutes, 11 seconds but it didn't help Hondarribia, which lost 99-75 at home. For Ros Casares, it was their 21st straight regular season victory. The loss dooms Hondarribia to a losing record for the regular season. However, Hondarribia should be assured to finish in the eighth place even if they lose next week and Celta wins to tie them - Hondarribia has beaten Celta twice in the regular season.

The box score is here.

El Ros took its typical big lead early on, leading 31-19. However, Hondarribia managed to close the gap to just six points at halftime with Ros Casares leading 48-42. The second half was all Ros Casares, with Ros Casares extending their lead to 14 points at the end of the third quarter and going on a 15-0 run at one time. Hondarribia had once took a 10-1 run lead in the third quarter to lead 52-50, but the run by El Ros would kill the home team. They held Hondarribia to just 15 points in the final quarter.

Ros Casares would hit 51 percent of its field goal attempts compared to 44 percent for Hondarribia. Even though Hondarribia won the battle of rebounds 34-27, Hondarribia would turn the ball over 23 times as compared to just nine times for Ros Casares. Furthermore, Ros Casares was sent to the free throw line 25 times where they would hit 23 shots.

Hondarribia

Katja Bavendam: 14 points and 12 rebounds for the game's only double-double.
Amra Dapo: 13 points, 7 rebounds.
Helen Cristina Santos Luz: 19 points...but ten turnovers.
Stacey Lovelace-Tolbert: 6 points and 3 rebounds for the ex-Dream and ex-Shock player.

Ros Casares

Erika de Souza: 19 points, 8 rebounds.
Delisha Milton-Jones: 24 points, 4 rebounds.
Amaya Valdemoro: 19 points, 3 rebounds.
Candice Wiggins: 2 points in only 10 minutes played. She had missed the last two games with a sprained knee.