«Հատիս»
HATIS Armenia's women
basketball team
It's good to have heroes and here are some of mine. This morning I was greeted with the news that the Armenian women basketball team, HATIS, beat their Turkish rivals, BESHIKTASH, 87-64. In an interview, team captain Bojana Vulic talks about the difficulties of getting to Istanbul simply to compete, having been stuck in Tbilisi for 15 hours waiting for permission to enter Turkey. This reminds me of getting stuck myself in a bus for 3 days in a mountain check point back in 1996 when I tried to return to Yerevan from a winter holiday and was told if we didn't pay a hefty fine the Russian soldiers would not be able to protect us from Georgian rebels who were supposedly operating in the area. As a round-up of the game, according to TERT news:
HATIS’ Maurita Reid collected 20 points and 12 rebounds … Ganna Zarytska added 17 points, Bojana Vulic had 16, and Julianne Viani, 14 as Yerevan dominated from long range, making 14 of 30 (46.6%) as a team. Reid personally made five of seven (71.4%) from three-point range. Also playing yesterday was Sony ATHINAIKOS (Greece) who beat Russia’s CHEVAKATA in Group F with a final score of 83-73. Currently, HATIS Yerevan is on equal standing with the teams from Greece and Turkey. All three teams have gained 5 points, recording 2 victories and 1 defeat.
The team is competing for the EuroCup and their next game will be December 3 in a home one in Mika Stadium in Yerevan. Congratulations, HATIS, you make everyone very proud.