Reis and Jackson, Face to Face at the Grapa

This Saturday, the 17th, at 7:30 p.m., Unicaja Mijas will visit the Grapa Municipal Gymnasium to face its closest rival in the Liga Femenina Challenge standings, Fustecma NBF Castelló. The game, which will be broadcast on BalONcesto TV, will pit two of the tournament’s top big women against each other: rookies Débora Reis and Brianna Jackson. The Brazilian ranks seventh in scoring with an average of 17 points, while the American leads the league in rebounding with an average of 12 rebounds per game, along with 16 points.

 

The Málaga team is looking to secure its second win of the season and remain undefeated on the road. To do so, they’ll have to overcome Fustecma NBF Castelló, a team that has retained many of its players from last season and bolstered its roster with newcomers who lack league experience but show great promise, such as the aforementioned Jackson.

 

This season marks Jaume Tormo’s tenth year at the helm of the Castellón team; alongside him remain players developed through the club’s youth system, such as Aina Ferri, Lucía Jovena, and Ania García. Also returning is a key player from last season: Laura Campos. The small forward was one of the team’s leading scorers, averaging 9.2 points per game.

 

 

Of the six new signings made by Unicaja Mijas’s opponent this Saturday, three have gotten off to a great start to the season. This trio consists of point guard Teresa Da Silva and big women Brianna Jackson and Serena Tchida. The guard is one of the league’s top shooters, with a 46.2% three-point shooting percentage that has allowed her to average 13.5 points so far this season.

 

However, Tormo’s team’s true strength lies in the paint. Between them, Jackson and Tchida have accounted for more than half of the team’s rebounds in the first two games they’ve played. Tchida averages 7 rebounds per game, while Jackson ranks in the top 10 in the Liga Femenina Challenge’s efficiency ratings thanks to her average of 16 points and 12 rebounds.

 

Despite these strong individual stats and the fact that Fustecma NBF Castelló is right on Unicaja Mijas’s heels in the standings, the Valencian team has yet to secure a victory. As a result, they’ll be extra eager to get their first win of the season. On opening night, they came very close, but Sparking Truth Maristas stormed the Grapa in overtime to complete a strong comeback and win by the narrowest of margins, 82–83.

 

On the second day of the league season, they visited the Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo in Seville. In the first half, they held their own against the home team, but in the second half of the game, they saw Sevilla Cajasol Women’s Basketball impose its style of play. However, it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Castellón team realized the game was slipping away, and they ultimately lost 72–57.

 

Unicaja Mijas has dominated the head-to-head matchups between the teams from Málaga and Castellón. The team from Los Guindos has won five of the six games played between the two sides. However, the last time Pérez de los Reyes’s team played at the Grapa, they struggled to come away with the victory. The game, which ended in a very close 56–57 finish, was led almost entirely by the visiting team, though without any significant lead.

 

Sofía Afonso: “We Have to Show What This Team Is Really Made Of”

Unicaja Mijas player Sofía Afonso looks ahead to the Málaga team’s next game, advising her teammates that they must focus “on our team, know how to compete, stay active, apply pressure, and bring that same attitude we showed in the second half of the game against Joventut.”

 

For Unicaja Mijas’ No. 7, this will be a special game as she returns to the Valencian Community, where she spent the last six seasons playing for Picken Claret. The Canary Islands native reiterates that the key to winning in Castellón lies in “coming together as a unit—in the end, I think the most important thing is the team, and we have to bring that out,” she says.

 

Regarding her adjustment to the Los Guindos squad, she says it’s a “big change because spending so much time on one team—with the same way of playing, style, and rules—makes the transition a bit ‘heavy,’ but in the end, I think it’s also a step toward what everyone wants in their athletic career,” she acknowledges. “I’m trying to understand my role here; I’m trying to contribute as much as I can so the team can compete at the highest level,” Afonso explains.

 

 Finally, regarding the revamped roster led by Javi Pérez de los Reyes this year, the shooting guard says they are “already starting to become a more solid unit; we’ve just gotten to know each other and need to gel a little more. We struggled a bit during the preseason, but in these first few games we’re already seeing what this league is all about and what we need to demand of ourselves to compete in it.”