Battered, bruised, and brilliant. Baxi Ferrol have brought their Cinderella story to the final of Eurocup Women. In the process, Monasterevin’s Claire Melia has become the first Irish women to reach a major club final in basketball. Emmet Ryan on an emotional night.
The wine was rationed. I needed to make sure I kept enough to write this column. Decades of sport convincing you that hope is foolish does that to you. Then Baxi Ferrol go and do the unthinkable. In their maiden season in Europe, they’ve reached the final of Eurocup Women. In the process, Claire Melia has become the first Irish woman to make a major European basketball final. This was some night.
Quite heavy going
Asvel learned one thing from last week. The plan from the off was to not give Claire Melia any space whatsoever. In the paint she was routinely double-teamed. In the post, three Asvel players surrounding the Monasterevin woman was a common sight.
It was a radical tactic and a smart one but it had an impact on the first quarter. The whole of the 40 minutes matter in basketball and the opening frame was important. Such was Asvel’s defensive focus early that they essentially sacrificed their offensive game. The French side needed time to implement its system.
As a result, Baxi Ferrol were able to more than live with the French side early on. The 22-20 lead on the night at the end of the first quarter proved telling. In aggregate play, that gave them a 33 point lead in the race to the Eurocup Women final.
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Melia gets it done with the grind
The ludicrous efficiency delivered by Claire Melia last week was too much to ask for a repeat performance. The physicality of the Asvel side however enabled her to find other ways to contribute significantly.
Melia finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists on the night for Baxi Ferrol. She also took one nasty swipe that left her bleeding. Rather annoyingly, the boxscore doesn’t show how many fouls she drew. That is the most underrated statistic in basketball. Still, she shot 3 of 5 from the line to get something for her troubles.
Getting to any final, especially one of the level of Eurocup Women, is a fight. That’s what it took from the Ferrol players in France on Thursday night. They ground it out and got it done.
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Now for the scary bit
Anyone who saw the game knows that I’m not referring to the blood. That was grand. No, there was a stage in the third quarter where Asvel pulled the aggregate deficit back to 12 points.
Given there were roughly 12 minutes left and this is a side that has previously won Eurocup Women, there was ample cause for alarm. Fortunately, Baxi Ferrol went into Rocky mode. Much as conventional wisdom would argue against standing and trading punches while defending a lead, that’s the proverbial option the Galician side chose.
The threes got traded and traded until that buzzer beater. Gala Mestres from nearer halfway than the arc put it up and boom. The workload for Asvel entering the fourth suddenly got a lot tougher and now Baxi Ferrol could box clever.
Baxi Ferrol are in dreamland. As Al Michaels famously said “Do you believe in miracles?”
It’s great to dream
It’s even better to see it become reality. Baxi Ferrol have reached their first ever major final and they’ve done it the hard way. Having entered Eurocup Women at the qualifying stage of the competition, they’re now going to host the first leg on 26 March.
The impact on Irish basketball will be enormous and long lasting. Prior to Claire Melia, no Irish woman had ever made a European final. Of the three Irish men, only Pat Burke was born here. More importantly than that, she’s the first player to come up through the Irish club system to achieve such a feat. Saying something is historic gets over-used but there’s simply no argument here. This is real history for the sport. Ireland and Ferrol are tied together in basketball for eternity as a result.
Naturally, I’ll find a way to be on press row. I can assure you all that the entirety of my Galician is the word Imos! and my Spanish is no better. BiE is on this journey and you better believe we’ll be covering it in person. The second leg in France is on my birthday. Dare I dream?
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