EuroCup Women disappointment for teams with the name Dynamo
2007 EuroCup Women winners Dynamo Moscow failed in their effort to qualify for the 2009 final.
They ended up losing at home in the second leg against Cras Basket and the series (141-161).
Cras Basket will host Galatasaray in the first leg of the final on Thursday, 2nd April 2009.
Galatasary, eliminated in the semi-final last season, gave their home supporters a scare in the first half before cruising to victory (62-39) against Dynamo Kursk.
Galatasaray won the series (109-100) and now have the satisfaction of playing the second leg of the final in their home arena on Thursday, 9th April 2009.
You can read about the game of interest by selecting the links below or scrolling down the page:
Suzy Batkovic (right) and Megan Mahoney were the big scorers for Cras Basket with 24 and 19 points apiece as their side came away with a road victory (85-75) against Dynamo Moscow.
Dynamo Moscow trailed by 5 points after the first match and had made up the deficit within the last minute of the first period (24-19) to level the score on aggregate.
Then Batkovic scored just before the period-ending buzzer for the guests to regain the aggregate lead.
Taranto scored the first 12 points of the second period to complete a 14-0 run to take control of the game for good (33-24) with almost16 minutes played.
Despite losing the rebound battle Cras Basket went into the interval leading (44-36).
Dynamo Moscow were more aggressive after the break. At one time they trailed by only 5 points but still went into the final period with an 8-point handicap (56-64).
Cras Basket controlled the pace of the game and led (75-62) to end the EuroCup Women semi-final series as a contest with Dynamo needing 19 points to win.
Ilisaine David was the other player from Cras Basket in double digits with 10 points. The French players from Cras Basket Audrey Sauret-Gillespie and Elodie Godin scored 5 and 8 points each.
For Dynamo Moscow Anete Jekabsone-Zogota led the way with 18 points. Janell Burse scored 17 points and Marina Kuzina finished with 14 points. Belinda Snell contributed 11 points and also had 9 rebounds.
For Natalia Hejkova, the head coach from Dynamo Moscow, it was disappointment all round. She said after the game that Cras Basket deserved to play in the final.
Her players looked bad. She asked them to concentrate on defense, grab rebounds but they didn't play the way she asked. They lost the first game in Italy mainly because of their own mistakes.
All of them were very disappointed. But if the team make 20 mistakes per game they would never play in the finals.
On the other hand Robert Riccini, the head coach from Cras Basket, was happy and explained: “We are very happy tonight.
Dynamo Moscow is a very strong team. We won our home game and it seems that Dynamo lost confidence. Tonight we controlled the game from the very beginning to the end."
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Seimone Augustus was the match winner with 38 points for Galatasaray as her side beat Dynamo Kursk (62-39). 
