Canadians Abroad: Michelle Plouffe and ASVEL Battle Sopron, 11/6/19
It was one of the most exciting and unpredictable games of the entire 2019-20 Euroleague Women campaign and Canadian international Michelle Plouffe was right in the middle of it.
The 6'2" forward from Edmonton was playing for a new club, ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, who had an uncertain start to the Euroleague in 2019, winning one and losing two. Their fourth Group B match-up was against Hungarian outfit Sopron, who had won two of their first three games in the Euroleague. Sopron may have seemed like the safe bet, but playing on their home court, ASVEL were not about to let their visitors walk all over them.
From the game's outset, Plouffe's offensive work made for a tight start, before Sopron were able to break away and took a nine-point lead by the first quarter's end. After Jelena Brooks hit seven in a row for Sopron in the second, Plouffe and Marieme Badiane broke ASVEL's cold streak midway through.
Both teams continued to make it hard for the other to connect on offence, which worked out most in Sopron's favour, as they led 31-15 at half time. Things got worse for the French side when Debora Dubei gave Sopron the game's biggest lead, nineteen points, after the game re-started. Things were looking bleak for the home team, but they were not about to hang their heads in defeat.
ASVEL started to make up the difference with a 7-0 run, but Brooks was still finding open looks for the visitors, as was Zsofia Fegyverneky. As the third quarter started to wind down, Michelle Plouffe had a three-pointer and made an assist to Ingrid Tanqueray to reduce the gap to just ten points as the game entered it's decisive final phase.
There was still no let up from Sopron in the fourth quarter, but Plouffe began what would be a seven-point unbroken streak which would make it a three-point game in the last five minutes. After Bernadett Hadar tried to give a late boost to Sopron, Badiane broke her opponents' scoring streak and Marine Johannes hit from outside the arc to make ASVEL's deficit stand at just one point.
Either side kept coming up short down the stretch before Ingrid Tanquerey tied the scores for the hosts ahead of the final minute. Plouffe blocked a layup attempt by Brooks and Johannes hit on the other end to put ASVEL up by two. After two final missed attempts from Sopron, the hosts could finally breathe. Their hard work had paid off, they had the win.
Plouffe played a big part in ASVEL's victory, registering 14 points in the game, second for her team behind only Tanqueray with 16. Aleksandra Crvendakic's 18 points for Sopron would be small comfort for the losing outfit.
ASVEL went on to finish the group in second place with an 8-6 record while Sopron would not qualify for the playoffs, ending up second-last in Group B. With the Euroleague Women season cut short at the playoffs, though, both teams' seasons were effectively over by the knockout round.
