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Bourges Basket are back in the running in EuroLeague Women Group C The second round of the EuroLeague Women group stage has been overshadowed by the death of Spartak Moscow Region’s president Shabtai von Kalmanovic (left). As a result Spartak Moscow’s game against Szeviép Szeged has been postponed. The second round of games started on Tuesday with just one game from Group D between Frisco Sika Brno and Fenerbahce with the hosts from Brno winning (74-66). In Group A, the visitors were the better teams on Wednesday night with Ros Casares and Galatasaray winning on the road. Ros Casares beat TEO Vilnius (78-48) and Galatasaray won against TTT Riga (66-60). In Group B, Halcon Avenida made up for last week's defeat with a road victory (75-52) against Gospic Croatia with Sancho Lyttle leading the way with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals. Wisla Can-Pack Krakow were pushed all the way by MiZo Pécs 2010 and had to wait 36 minutes to finally take over the game to win (85-78) with Iziane Castro Marques scoring 22 points. Essence Carson made her début for Bourges Basket and helped them in a road win against Good Angels Kosice (64-53). She scored 13 points while Nwal-Endéné Miyem scored 16 points. In the other games in Group C, ZVVZ USK Prague fell at home (76-83) to Rivas Ecópolis while MKB Euroleasing won at home against KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow (78-64). Thursday's evening EuroLeague Women action opened with Lotos Gdynia beating Tarbes (73-68) in a technical game of cat and mouse. There was more disappointment for French club sides with the defeat of Villeneuve d'Ascq (70-92) against Beretta-Famila Schio. Sandrine Gruda scored with just over two minutes to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg to go into the lead for good. They went on to beat Cras Basket (79-72). From 11 EuroLeague women matches this week, six ties went to the visiting team. In Group A, all teams playing at home lost.
1. Group A EuroLeague Women Group A - Better for the teams on the road
Hammon has signed with the club until the end of the year with a possible extension for 2010. Ros Casares travelled to Lithuania to play TEO Vilnus and quickly took control of the game and led (14-4) with just over five minutes played. They went into the second quarter ahead (18-11). Delisha Milton-Jones was themain scorer for Ros Casares with 10 first-quarter points. In the second quarter a trey by Ljubica Drljaca was the start of 9-0 run by Ros Casares which finally swung the game in their favour (31-15) halfway through the quarter. TEO struggled offensively for the rest of the period and went into the locker room trailing (21-44). TEO continued to turn the ball over during the third period and Ros Casares more or less ended the game as a contest leading (63-30) going into the final quarter. Ros Casares ended up winning (78-48) with 23 points coming from Milton-Jones. Erika De Souza and Anna Montañana contributed 14 and 10 points each. Quanitra Hollingsworth was again the main offensive weapon for TEO with 12 points. She also picked up 10 rebounds. Renee Montgomery added 10 points. TTT Riga went into the final quarter leading (48-42) against Galatasaray and with five minutes left to play they were level (54-54). Galatasaray finally broke their hosts' resistance with Sophia Young (30 points) and Nilay Yigit combining for the next 8 points (62-55). TTT were unable to make up the deficit despite the efforts of Lyndra Weaver with 25 points and ended up losing (60-66). UMMC Ekaterinburg found the going difficult against Cras Basket and had to wait until late in the final quarter to make the game safe. Agnieszka Bibrzycka started the final assault, which was followed by back to back baskets from Sandrine Gruda for UMMC to take the lead for good (72-70) with the game entering money-time. UMMC went on to win (79-72) and denied Cras Basket a EuroLeague Women victory. EuroLeague Women Group B - Wisla Can-Pack Krakow are okay
Iziane Castro Marques (left) 22 points, which included the points that put Wisla Can-Pack in the lead for good in the final quarter, was the match winner. But the player of the match was team-mate Janell Burse who scored 18 points and took 15 rebounds to the delight of the home fans. MiZo Pécs 2010 went into the final quarter leading (58-54). Yet once Dalma Ivanyi (16 points) stopped scoring, the tie turned in favour of the hosts. MiZo Pécs 2010 were unable to hold the lead and fell behind (60-62) with eight minutes to play. They tied the game on two occasions with Ivanyi and Nicole Ohlde (15 points) before going in front for the last time (67-64). The home side continued to battle and took the advantage for good with a trey by Castro Marques with less than five minutes to play. They managed to keep Ivanyi and Ohlde scoreless as they built out their lead (79-73). The last minutes were played out on the free-throw line with the hosts holding on to win (85-78). Gospic Croatia had the better of the first quarter of their home tie against Halcon Avenida (16-13). The game was not great to watch with plenty of errors. However Gospic were ahead at the interval (32-30). Halcon Avenida picked up after the break and went in front within two minutes of the quarter. They increased their advantage to 10 points by the end of the quarter. Gospic fell apart during the last 10 minutes allowing their guests from Spain to comfortably win the match (52-75).
Podkovalnikova played in France for14 months at Montpellier. She came in October 2006 as medical cover for Lindsay Taylor. When Taylor did not recover, Podkovalnikova stayed until the end of the season. She started the 2007-2008 season but was released from the club at the Christmas break.
Abdou N'Diaye (left) the coach from Villleneuve said after the game "A strange game. We played well for twenty minutes, with a good defense, and very badly in the second half. We can't allow our opponents to score 92 points if we want to win a game in the EuroLeague Women". EuroLeague Group C - Bourges got the victory they requiredEssense Carson made her début for Bourges Basket and did not waste time on getting onto the team sheet with the first points of the game against Good Angels Kosice. Katrina Manic was caught in two minds moments later and lost the ball to Lucia Kupcikova who passed it to Candice Dupree to score.
Bourges quickly recovered and took control with in particular Nwal-Endéné Miyem doing most of the scoring as her side edged the first quarter (20-16). However the move of the first quarter belonged to Katarina Hrickova who was allowed to go coast to coast and to reverse a lay-up on the buzzer. The second quarter was the show of Dupree as she scored 7 of her team's first 9 points as Good Angels Kosice matched Bourges basket for basket. However the telepathy between Emméline Ndongue and Miyem enabled Bourges to hold onto the advantage (27-23) with five minutes played. Both coaches made several changes as the game became rather messy with neither side having luck offensively while Luisa Michulkova fired in a trey for the hosts. A trey by Anastasia Kostaki brought the two teams level (29-29) for only the second time in the game. Both sides traded basketS to go into the interval tied (31-31).
The hosts were for the first time in the match a little lost. So Bourges took full advantage to open up the first significant lead of the game (45-33) midway through the third period. Bourges then controlled the pace of the game for the rest of the quarter and went into the final quarter leading (51-40). The hosts never got in a position to trouble Bourges for the rest of the game and the game fizzled out with Bourges winning (64-53). Miyem led the way with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Carson added 13 points for Bourges Basket while Dupree with 16 and Hrickova with 12 points led the way for the hosts.
It appears that she has recovered because she scored 21 points in her team's (78-64) home victory against KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow. Amber Holt added 16 points for the hosts. Rivas Ecopolis travelled to Prague and defeated ZVVK USK Praha (83-76). Rivas did the damage in the first quarter. They opened the game with an 8-0 run, and then added another 12 unanswered points to lead (20-1).
Lindsay Whalen was a lady on a mission at the start of the third period and scored 7 straight points for ZVVK to take the lead (44-42) after 22 minutes. Rivas woke themselves up and by the end of the third quarter they led (62-54). They did not allow their hosts a chance of getting back in the final quarter and won (83-76) with 32 points coming from Crystal Langhorne (left). She also picked up 11 rebounds while Spanish international Anna Cruz added 16 points and made 5 steals. Katerina Elhotova was the top scorer for the hosts with 18 points. Cathrine Kraayeveld and Whalen added 17 and 16 points each.
Lotos Gdynia and Tarbes’ encounter had all the ingredients of good EuroLeague Women basketball: action, suspense, drama and good basketball. Even when the game was held up for five minutes in the final quarter due to problems with the electronic scoreboard, the crowd, the players and the coaches took it all in good humour. As for the match itself, the first 20 minutes was a case of both teams playing cat and mouse with the lead changing hands eight times. At half time the match was tied (31-31). After two minutes of the third quarter both teams were on equal terms (40-40).
They neutralised each other until Shameka Christon (19 points and 4 assists) was left open for a split second. She hit a trey that put the home side in the lead (43-40). Both sides still found it difficult to score until Christon fired in her second trey of the quarter. Immediately Pauline Jannault for Tarbes responded with trey. The pace of the game went up with Charde Houston (19 points and 10 rebounds) and Isabelle Yacoubou-Dehoui (10 points) brought Tarbes back on level terms (49-49). Ivana Matovic (16 points) restored the home side’s advantage with powerful play in the paint. Erin Phillips (14 points and 6 assists) finished the scoring with a trey for Lotus to go into the final quarter ahead (56-51). The last period started well for the hosts with Matovic hitting a baseline jumper. But Florence Lepron (7 assists) was allowed to run into the paint and then perform a reverse spin to score for Tarbes. This was the only success Tarbes had while Lotus moved 10 points clear with Christon scoring 5 points (63-53). The game was then held up due to problems with the electronic scoreboard. After the interruption Matovic added 2 more points for the hosts.
Her speed and youthful exuberance caused her opponents problems and was the catalyst Tarbes required. Her first action was a long pass to Frida Eldebrink (15 points) who then hit a three-pointer. With the game in money-time, Tarbes trailed by 6 points. With just over a minute to play, Eldebrink managed to provoke a foul from nothing and was sent to the free-throw line. She hit the first throw and missed the second which was rebounded by Houston. However the officials blew their whistle because a player from Lotus had moved too early. Eldebrink had to retake the throw again. She repeated the same throw that bounced on the ring and fell into the hands of Houston who then scored and picked up the foul. Houston hit the free-throw and with just over a minute left to play Tarbes trailed (64-67). Tarbes had no choice but to foul the Lotus players to stop the clock. But Paulina Pawlak and Emilija Podrug kept their cool at the free-throw line with 6-from-6 to hold off Tarbes (73-68). On Tuesday evening Frisco Sika Brno beat Fenerbahce (74-66) to the relief of their coach Jan Bobrovsky. He explained that his team played their best basketball of the season during the fist 20 minutes. He does not have a big roster this year and with Zuzana Zirkova not playing, the second half of the game was more difficult. He was more than satisfied that his team held on to win their first EuroLeague Women tie of the season. EuroLeague Women Results and box scoresCras Basket 72-77 UMMC Ekaterinburg Gospic Croatia 52-75 Halcon Avenida Wisla Can-Pack 85-78 MiZo Pécs 2010 Beretta-Famila Schio 92-70 Villeneuve d'Ascq ZVVZ USK Prague 76-83 Rivas Ecópolis Good Angels Kosice 53-64 Bourges Basket MKB Euroleasing 78-64 KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow Frisco Sika Brno 74-66 Fenerbahce Diana Taurasi leads Spartak Moscow Region to victory Return to the EuroLeague Women index Return from FIBA Europe EuroLeague Women round-up to women playing basketball blog Return to women playing basketball in France home page EuroLeague Women picture credits: womensbasketball-in-france.com Date created: 04 November 2009 |
Becky Hammon's (right) signing was the basketball news from Valencia while the absence of Amaya Valdemoro from Ros Casares for their latest EuroLeague Women match was relegated to the back pages. 
Wisla Can-Pack Krakow make it two wins from two games with a second victory (85-78) against MiZo Pécs 2010.
Sancho Lyttle led the scoring with 17 points and was supported by Olga Podkovalnikova (right) with 15 points.
Emile Gomis scored 25 points for Villeneuve d'Ascq but it was not enough to stop Beretta-Famila from winning (92-70).
Jelena Milovanovic (left) was doubtful for MKB Euroleasing Sopron EuroLeague Women match because she had been in hospital for dizziness and blurred vision. 
Rivas went into the second quarter leading (22-4). But a barrage of three-pointers from the hosts reduced their lead to 3 points by the break (40-37).
The introduction of Isis Arrondo (left) for Tarbes with just over five minutes left to play made Tarbes more lively. 
