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EuroLeague Women brings out the best from Spartak Moscow Region Diana Taurasi's EuroLeague Women scoring festival helped Spartak Mosscow Region to beat Fernerbahce (90-79) in the opening game of the best of three series.She scored 24 points during the first half of the match. With her friends, Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles, they contributed a total of 54 points in the victory. Candace Parker gave a demonstration of her all-round skills in leading UMMC Ekaterinburg to victory against Good Angels Kosice (81-56). She scored 21 points in just under 24 minutes on the court. Parker also picked up 14 rebounds and blocked 4 shots. Ciudad Ros Casares got past Halcon Avenida (74-50) in the all Spanish affair with 21 points coming from Belinda Snell. Wisla Can-Pack came from behind in the final quarter to beat Frisco Sika Brno (78-74). Select the links below to read the EuroLeague Women basketball news from the various games: 1. Spartak Moscow Region keep it going Spartak Moscow Region turning on the style when neededThe smiles on the faces of Diana Taurasu, Sue Bird and Sylvia Fowles from Dynamo Moscow Region during the warm-up were enough to scare any team. So Fernerbahce was warned. Bird returned to the starting line-up after sitting out a couple of domestic games. Fernerbahce got off to a flying start with EuroLeague Women all star Nevriye Yilmaz scoring on the very first attack. Anete Jekabsone-Zogota and Nicole Powell traded three-pointers in a hectic opening. Spartak then stepped on the accelerator with Fowles, Tauarasi and Bird during a 15-4 run to move 10 points clear (19-9) with six minutes played. Spartak continued to apply full court pressure. With treys from Kelly Miller and Taurasi they stretched their advantage by the end of the first quarter (32-15). Fernerbahce were a different team in the second quarter. They took more risks offensively and started to hit shots in from all over the court in order to reduce the deficit.
Yilmaz showed her skills from behind the arc for the last points of the first quarter as the clock was running down (41-56). Spartak Moscow made sure that Penny Taylor was given no space to anything with the ball while Powell was not left open beyond the arc during the third quarter. In addition Janel Mc Carville and Fowles took over the offensive duties and were joined by Marina Karpunina as they went into the final quarter with a comfortable lead (77-53). Spartak Moscow went to their bench players for most of the final quarter: Sonja Petrovic, Kelly Miller, Natalia Vieru, Ilona Korstin and Karpunina. Yilmaz (25 points) and Powell (22 points) profited with the extra space to bring the score down but it was not enough. Spartak Moscow won the game (90-79) to take a 1-0 lead in the best of three EuroLeague Women semi-final. Taurasi finished the game as top scorer with 28 points. Fowles (above) added 18 points and picked up 12 rebounds while Bird contributed 10 points. Return to the top Candace Parker made the differenceGood Angels Kosice gave the home fans from UMMC Ekaterinburg an early fright by scoring the first 6 points of the game. Candace Parker broke the sequence. But a trey by Erin Lawless forced UMMC coach Gundars Vetra to call a time-out. Whatever he said worked because UMMC scored the next 9 points to go into the lead (11-9). Parker and Cappie Pondexter did all the scoring for UMMC as they edged the first quarter (17-16). They won the battle against Angel McCoughtry (12 points) and Candice Dupree (13 points). UMMC continued to struggle in putting away their guests (24-23). It took them 14 minutes to take hold of the game. Sandrine Gruda and Svetlana Abrosimova (right) got the hosts going. Parker finished the job off as they went into the locker room leading (47-39). Parker scored 11 points and came up with 2 big blocks during a low scoring third quarter. The hosts moved 20 points clear (64-44). UMMC did not allow Goods Angels any chance of coming back in the final quarter and won by a comfortable margin (81-56). Parker led the scoring with 21 points while Abrosimova, Gruda and Pontexter all finished in double digits with 14, 13 and 11 points each. The EuroLeague Women dream is not over. Ivaná Jalcová (12 points) with her team Good Angels have the chance to force game three on Friday when they play at home. Return to the top Belinda Snell found scoring touchWhen Ros Casaras beat Perfumerias Avenida in the final of the Copa de la Reina the battle between Sancho Lyttle from Avenida and Delisha Milton-Jones from Ros Casaras was the high point of the game. Lyttle lost the battle in January but had the upper hand in this game. Milton Jones picked up 3 fouls on Lyttle and was to foul out of the game during the final quarter.
Snell scored 8 straight points that put the hosts Ros Casares in the lead for good. Miton Jones (14 points) added a couple of points before Snell ended their 13-point run with a trey (15-5) with just over five minutes played. Snell added a pair of free-throws for her 13th point to the game to finish the scoring in the first quarter (21-12). The second quarter was an intense affair with neither team having the advantage for long. Avenida reduced their deficit to 5 points (18-23) before their coach Jordi Sanchez picked up a technical foul. The hosts took full advantage with Elisa Aguilar hitting the two free-throws. On the next attack Laia Palau (13 points) was firing in a three-pointer. A trey by Amaya Valdemoro stretched the lead further. But Avenida recovered slightly and went into the locker room trailing by 10 points (29-39). Snell opened the scoring after the break to put Ros Casares on their way. Avenida's (17 points) dependence on the three-point shooting of Le'Coe Willingham worked in favour of the hosts. When she missed two late attempts in the third quarter, she left them 15 points down. The final quarter became a formality for Ros Casares who stretched their advantage to win (74-50). Snell finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists for the EuroLeague Women player of the match award. Return to the top Wisla Can-Pack still on track
Frisco Sika Brno had the better start to the game and led (17-6) after five minutes. However the hosts rallied the score back to level with an 8-0 run by the end of the first quarter (19-19). Frisco Sika Brno regained the upper hand during the second quarter and went into the locker room ahead (43-34). The third quarter turned into a classic game of cat and mouse with Wisla Can-Pack coming out on top as they reduced the deficit (56-62) going into the final quarter.
The hosts went in front for only the second time in the game with a trey by Iziane Castro-Marques (18 points) with under five minutes to play. Vitecková brought the teams back on level terms before Liron Cohen (13 points) and Janell Burse José Hernández, the coach from Wisla Can-Pack, explained that he would like to finish the job on Friday and qualify for the EuroLeague Women final four: "I am very happy. But we need to win two games so although this is a very important win it is still only a first step. I would not like to come back to Krakow for a third game. We want to finish it in Brno". Return to the top EuroLeague Women quarter-final (game one) results and box scoresSpartak Moscow Region 90-79 Fenerbahce UMMC Ekaterinburg 81-56 Good Angels Kosice Wisla Can-Pack 78-74 Frisco Sika Brno Ros Casares 74-50 Halcon Avenida Return to the top Delight for Frisco Sika Brno, Halcon Avenida & Wisla Can-Pack Look back at game two stories from the eighth-final Return to the EuroLeague Women index GO Back to the top of the page EuroLeague Women picture credits: FIBA Europe
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Their hopes were dashed by Taurasi who was having a festival from beyond the arc (5-of-7). She fired in back to back tree-pointers for her 24th point of the game just before the interval.
Halcon Avenida led for just 13 seconds in the match (5-2) just before Belinda Snell started her show.
2500 fans came to support Wisla Can-Pack in their EuroLeague Women quarter-final match against Frisco Sika Brno.
The guests played most of the game with just five players. They led (69-67) with six minutes to play thanks to the scoring of Eva Vitecková (22 points) and Jelena Skerovic (20) points.
