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With both groups having just 3 teams, there’s only one team in each that will not advance to the playoffs.
Group E
By adding EuroLeague Women Final Eight MVP Asjha Jones, Kayseri KASKI are looking to improve upon their last season’s appearance in the final of ECW. Jones will be joined by American center Nicky Anosike, Greek wing Evanthia Maltsi and Spanish point guard Nuria Martinez. Last year’s team leader Latoya Sanders has obtained Turkish citizenship so she will continue to play with the team as an European. Pinar Demirok and Yasemin Dalgalar will get the most minutes among the Turkish players.
Horizont last season advanced to the playoffs over Dynamo Moscow where they were swept by the eventual champions. Tatyana Troina left Horizont for France, but Tatsiana Likhtarovich returned to Belarus after a stint with VICI-Aistes in Lithuania. Team’s leader Natalia Anufryienka has returned and ought to be leading the team again. Unlike most teams, Horizont is composed of local Belorussian players and Ukrainian center Aleksandra Khomenchuk without any Americans.
Jennifer Stjarnstrom will be the only player from the Swedish NT that historically qualified for EuroBasket Women 2013 on the Telge Basket team. Yet, she has not been the among the team’s leading players early this season. Americans Angelique Robinson, Devona Allgood, 18 year old Paulina Hersler and 2009 European U18 Championship MVP Cleopatra Forsman-Goga have been the team leaders.
Group F
Group F is pretty straightforward with the defending champions Dynamo Kursk and Botas the vastly superior teams compared to Dunav 8806.
Kursk has compiled an EuroLeague Women worthy roster with 5 American players, Epiphanny Prince, Shay Murphy, Erin Lawless, Temeka Johnson and Michelle Snow, (first three have European passports), Lithuanian NT leader Ausra Bimbaite as well as Russian players like Ekaterina Lisina and Natalia Vodopyanova.
Botas will move forward with the European courts dominating Courtney Paris, who you can count on to average a double-double by the end of the tournament. Americans Christi Thomas and Quianna Chaney will look to help Paris out as will Slovenian guard Katarina Ristic.
Bulgarian representatives in EuroCup Women, Dunav 8806, don’t even have any of the worth mentioning members of the quite weak Bulgarian National Team. So everything will fall on the shoulders of Estonian wing Merike Anderson and American duo – Amanda Johnson and Kristina Santiago.
