Malia’s Blog: First Tournament in the Books
By Malia Fisher
To round-out the final days of my first preseason as a professional athlete, the Rutronik Stars
Keltern and I participated in the Lux’ELLE Trophy Women’s Basketball Tournament. From September 19th to 21st, we embarked on a four-hour journey to Luxeuil-Les Bains, France, in two mini-buses. There, we were guaranteed two games out of four teams, with the winner taking home some hardware!
A typical gameday is much more anticlimactic than one would assume. You wake up, have breakfast, and then retreat to your room for a few hours. Afterward, you come back, have lunch, and return to your room for another few hours. Finally, you’re ready to head to the gym and play. Your time is entirely yours, and you have the freedom to choose how you spend it, which is fair game.
The rule in the NCAA rule regarding warm-up time is that the clock starts exactly one hour before the game. However, here in Germany, we don’t even start stretching until there are 30 minutes left on the clock!
Our first game was against Elfic Fribourg, a Swiss team that has won the national championship eight times since 2024. We started the game strong, taking the lead by a significant margin in the first few minutes. However, we couldn’t maintain this momentum and before we knew it, Fribourg had caught up by halftime. The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle, with foul trouble plaguing both teams. When the clock struck zero, the game was tied, and we were headed into a five-minute overtime period.
At this point, both of our starting bigs had fouled out, and I was soon to follow suit. This left our team with only five guards, with only about three minutes left to play. Despite the odds stacked against us, we managed to string together momentum and make smart decisions to pull out the win and advance to the championship game against Charney Basket Bourgogne Sud, a French team from the La Boulangère Wonderligue, the Eurocup, and the tournament’s returning champions from last year.
Charney Basket has consistently proven, in years past, to be a top competitor. This meant that we had our work cut out for us. Game two began with a familiar pattern, but unfortunately, we weren’t on the dominant side. Within the first quarter, we were losing by double digits, as many as nineteen points, if my memory serves correctly. We managed to claw our way back in the second quarter and eventually took the lead going into halftime. Coming out of the third and fourth, we were determined to secure the win and advance to the championship. The basketball gods were not very kind to us. The French team, despite the unforced turnovers, missed rebounds, and not-so-great shot selection, assuredly emerged victorious in the Lux’ELLE Trophy Women’s Basketball Tournament, going back-to-back in the competition.
So, where does that leave us? Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor does our team have everything figured out. However, we are not ones to give up easily when faced with pressure. That very attitude will undoubtedly contribute to our wins in the coming games.
The Rutronik Stars Keltern will commence their season in the DBBL, Damen Basketball Bundesliga, on September 28th.
Until next time, remember that perseverance is not found on the easy route! Stay tuned for more exciting updates.
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