Basketball / Women's State Cup / A pair of decorated veterans go head-to-head again tonight
By Arie Livnat
Tonight's women's basketball State Cup final between Elitzur Ramle and Ramat Hasharon is also a matchup between Ina Gourevitch and Limor Mizrahi, two of the most senior and most decorated players in the league. One of them will lift the cup. Here is how they stack up against one another:
u Age: Gourevitch was born on April 14, 1968, and in another month will turn 40. Mizrahi was born on June 24, 1970, and in three months turns 38.
Advertisement
u International career: Gourevitch grew up at Dynamo Kiev, where she reached the Euroleague Women final twice and won three U.S.S.R. championships. Mizrahi reached the Euroleague Women with Gdynia and won the Polish championship in 2004; won the Croatian championship with Gospic in 2005; played half a year on the New England Blizzards in the American Basketball League; won the cup-league double in Iceland with Reykjavik and played one year at the University of Maryland.
u In Israel: Gourevitch is in her 15th straight season in the Premier League. In the beginning, she played as a foreigner for two years at Emek Hayarden and a year at Bnei Yehuda. After that, she played as an Israeli on Elitzur Holon for five years, two years at Ramat Hasharon and five seasons and Elitzur Ramle. Mizrahi has been playing since 1987 until now, except for five seasons abroad; a total of 17 years - five seasons at Bnei Yehuda, two years at Elitzur Holon, one year at Ramat Hasharon, a year at Bnei Herzliya, two years at Elitzur Ramle, two-and-a-half years at Newsport Carmiel, two half-year stints at Holon, half of a season at Ramat Hasharon, a year at Maccabi Ramat Chen and two years at Ramat Hasharon.
u Titles in Israel: Gourevitch has won six league championships and six State Cups. Mizrahi has won four league championships and four State Cups.
u Head-to-head for titles: 1997 - Gourevitch wins a double with Holon over Mizrahi's Ramle; 1998 - league championship for Mizrahi, State Cup for Gourevitch; 2003 - they won a league-cup double together with Ramat Hasharon; 2007 - Gourevitch won a double with Ramle over Mizrahi's Ramat Hasharon.
u The winning touch: Is a part of Gourevitch. Since she left Holon in 2001, she is 5-for-5 in league championships and 4-for-5 in the State Cup. She has a tendency to rise to the occasion in big games. As evidence, the her best game of the season so far came two days ago in the State Cup semifinal against Ashdod. Mizrahi succeeds in getting her teams to the end, including smaller teams like Herzliya (a historic playoff) and Carmiel (two playoff finals), but it does not always result in titles. She reached the 1997 State Cup final with Ramle, but missed two potentially game-winning shots and Holon won in overtime. Two Mizrahi free throws in 1998 put Ramle into an historic European semifinal. In the middle of the 2002-03 season, she arrived at Ramat Hasharon to take the place of Aluma Goren and led an impressive comeback and a league-cup double. After a mediocre season last year, she improved in the final series.
u This season: Gourevitch has averaged 15 minutes and 5.1 points (a career low), 31 percent on three-pointers, in league games this season. Gourevitch: "My fitness level is always good. he question is whether they are using me as much as they should. This year, not so much." Mizrahi has averaged six points in 24 minutes, 28 percent on three-pointers (a career low in Israel), 4.4 assists and 2.6 rebounds. Mizrahi: "I make conclusions at the end of the season."
u Current form: Gourevitch is right now playing her best basketball of the season - averaging eight points in her last three games and 8-of-12 on three-pointers. "The moment that Jaclyn Johnson got hurt, a situation was created in which I got more minutes." Mizrahi recently lost her starting spot to Naomi Kolodny. She has averaged 3.8 points over the last five games. "It's not relevant. Everything that the team has done and that I have done is irrelevant. This is one game, 40 minutes, and we need to do the maximum."
u What are you going to tell your teammates ahead of the final? Gourevitch: "I am going to say to them, 'Yalla! We're going to do it.' Talking before finals doesn't do any good. We need to play our game. We need the pressure to come before the game because you give everything you have to when your back is against the wall, but as soon as the game starts the pressure has to stop."
Mizrahi: "I will tell them that when the game is over, whether we win or lose, we will know that we gave the maximum. So that we will not feel like we missed anything. If we win, we will be happy; if it isn't enough, than we'll live with it knowing that we did everything we could. You should not have any special preparation for these types of games. You don't need to talk about it too much. Everyone wants one thing, and we know how important it is."
u A sentence about the opponent. Gourevitch: "Limor is great. I love her. I congratulate her on still playing. She has made a challenge, saying that she is waiting for me to retire and then she will retire. I hope that she plays for a few more years. Mizrahi: "She keeps on going."
u The last final? Ahead of retirement? Gourevitch: "I can't say anything. If I felt that I couldn't play, I would not have stayed at Ramle. I would have played in the lowest league." Mizrahi: "That's a question I can't answer, but it is definitely my last final."
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
