Round-up: Second Round in EuroLeague Women

Group A

Wisla Can-Pack achieved a minor miracle just by forcing overtime against Gyor, who were the better team that night. Gyor played like they didn’t know what to do with a 10 point lead with less than five minutes remaining in the game against one of the group’s favorites. Their defense became too hesitant against a team that was desperate to get scores. Overtime wasn’t pretty by no means as both teams combined for 8 turnovers, with each team having four apiece. Ultimately what killed Krakow was inability to grab rebounds in OT – Gyor had all 5 rebounds of the extra period – in a game Krakow had dominated the boards. Absences of Charles and Douglas has not helped a Krakow team that has Daria Mieloszynska injured and Anke de Mondt and Cristina Ouvina playing sick. For Krakow, a team with high objectives these losses might prove costly in terms of playoff seeding.

Speaking of injured teams, it was a tall order for Bourges to win at Moscow as they were. With ailments to Dumerc, Miyem and Eldebrink it appeared next to impossible for them to come out with a win. After dominating Krakow on the boards last week, Bourges got owned by Sparta&K this week – at halftime the hosts pulled down as many offensive rebounds as Bourges had defensive ones. Outside of very effective attacking (10/13 FG), Candice Dupree was also the best rebounder of Sparta&K with 7 rebounds.

For the second game in a row in EuroLeague Women, Tarsus were horrendous on defense and this time their offense did not wake up as they were destroyed by Rivas. Tarsus scored just two field goals in the first quarter. DeLisha Milton-Jones was 0/8 in that frame, Amaya Valdemoro was 0/5. In the whole game they combined for 2 of 22. As a team Tarsus were 18 from 62 from the field. If you don’t count the only bright spot for them – Melisa Can, who was perfect 8 of 8 – Tarsus shot 10 from 54. EuroLeague Women team. Let that sink in…

Wisla Can-Pack – HAT AGRO UNI Gyor 62-67 OT
Wisla: Horti 23 (13 reb), Pawlak 13, Zurowska 11 (10 reb) (De Mondt 5, Ouvina 4, Stampalija 2)
Gyor: Hurst 14, Shegog 12, Kublina 11, Nagy-Bujdoso 9

Sparta&K Vidnoje – Bourges Basket 84-62
Vidnoje: Dupree 22, Hammon 15, Yacoubou 13, Beliakova 12 (Aguilar 5, Baric 4, Petrovic 3)
Bourges: Miyem 14, Dimitrakou 14, Dumerc 12, Eldebrink 10

Rivas Ecopolis – Tarsus 79-48
Rivas: Cruz 18, Henry 14, Kurasova 11, Nicholls 9, Gimeno 9
Tarsus: Can 18, Jansone 7, Milton-Jones 6, Robinson 6 (Valdemoro 4, Lima 2)

Group B

18-5 run to finish the third quarter gave Kosice their first win of the season. Serbian PG Miljana Bojovic was everywhere in that period – she scored 8 of Kosice’s points and assisted on 3 other baskets. Sopron won’t have much chances to sneak in the playoffs if Jelena Milovanovic will continue to struggle on offense. Combined in last two games she is 8 from 25 from the field. Unlike last week she wasn’t a factor in rebounding where Shenise Johnson and Sara Krnjic shined for Sopron. Krnjic has had her own fair share of shooting woes, being a 196 cm tall center she’s shooting 5 of 14 to start the season. Kosice won this game by not relying on a couple of players, but sharing. Bojovic had a total of 12 assists, while Sopron as a team had 13.

Outside of Gabriela Marginean, Targoviste were a polar opposite of themselves last week. Suddenly no one could hit anything with FG shooting lines like 2/11, 2/7, 3/11, 2/9, 0/5, 0/3.  Fenerbahce meanwhile went to their bigs – Ivana Matovic and Anastasiya Verameyenka who were unstoppable for Targoviste’s posts. Both of the them combined for 16 of 23 shooting and 14 rebounds. At the start of the season, Fenerbahce clearly appear to be the best shape of Group B teams, mainly due to little turnover in the roster during offseason.

With the arrival of Renee Montgomery, Nadezhda became that much more dangerous to their opponents… and themselves. Take for instance their game against Schio – Renee Montgmery starts the game 5 of 11, the team leads by 4 at halftime, Montgomery misses all five attempts in the third quarter and goes 1 of 8 in the second half and Nadezhda gets soundly beaten by Schio. As a result Schio got 16 assists in their win while Nadezhda had 7. And it was not like both of the “hero ballers” (Montgomery and Bonner combined for 37 of the team’s 62 field goal attempts) got any assistance from the referees – Schio went to the line 15 times, while Nadezhda only 7. On Schio side of things – great game by Laura Macchi with 16 points and Elodie Godin with 10 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.

Good Angels Kosice – UE Sopron 89-78
Kosice: Williams 18, Bojovic 16 (12 as), Quigley 13, Pierson 13, Kulichova 10 (12 reb)
Sopron: Johnson 29 (11 reb), Fegyverneky 21, Milovanovic 8 (Krnjic 6, Zavecz 4, Teilane 2)

Fenerbahce – Targoviste 73-48
Fenerbahce: Matovic 22, Pondexter 16, Verameyenka 14, McCoughtry 13 (Vardarli 0, Nevlin 0)
Targoviste: Marginean 16, Robbins 7, Miljkovic 6, Tikhonenko 6 (Novosel 5, Bjelica 4, Babkina 4, Matic 0)

Famila Schio – Nadezhda Orenburg 72-64
Schio: Macchi 16, McCray 14, Lavender 11, Godin 10 (14 reb)
Nadezhda: Bonner 19 (12 reb), Montgomery 15, Danilochkina 12 (Perovanovic 5, Tamane 2)

Group C

Nneka Ogwumike exposed what is a lack of talent in the post for Perfumerias Avenida as she had 22 points in Polkowice’s first win of the season. For whatever the reason, Polkowice have not lost to Avenida in now three games, both have played over the last two seasons. This was a really closely matched game with the difference at the end being that Polkowice got to the line 8 times in the final quarter, before Avenida started fouling in the final minute, for some easy points while the hosts did not attempt a single freethrow. Polkowice also erased a 5 rebound deficit they had going in the final quarter. If the first two rounds provide any indication of what’s to come, it’s that this will be a very fun group to follow.

Galatasaray had a catastrophic start to the game against USK Prague as they made just 3 of their first 26 shots, but than again it was not like Prague made them pay for it, leading by just 12 points before Galatasaray made their fourth field goal. Prague could not keep Galatasaray off the offensive boards and hang on to the ball when they had it themselves. Situation might have been different had Rebbekah Brunson not been delayed by hurricane Sandy in the States. Both Jelena’s, Skerovic and Dubljevic, contributed for most of the Prague’s turnovers with 12 of 23 turnovers being attributed to them. Skerovic mostly turned the ball over while trying to pass, which is not a good indication of ones point guarding abilities, Dubljevic meanwhile was responsible for trying to do too much at the same time, so there were more travelling, ball handling or offensive foul type of turnovers from her. So basically, despite Galatasaray just handing over the game to Prague, Prague politely declined and handed it over back to the hosts.

Now that they’ve secured their place in the Final Eight, Ekaterinburg can work on their play, not worrying too much of the game outcomes. And if their first game of the season against Novi Zagreb is any indication, they need to do a heckuva lot on their defense which this Zagreb team, despite being on the road, tore apart. Invisible performance by Candace Parker who was a defensive liability did not help UMMC’s cause in this game.

Perfumerias Avenida – CCC Polkowice 59-68
Avenida: Powell 14, Hodges 13, Sulciute 11
CCC: Ogwumike 22, Musina 11, Palau 11

Galatasaray – ZVVZ USK Prague 58-56
Galatasaray: Lyttle 17 (12 reb), Wauters 14 (10 reb), Alben 9 (Caglar 8, Ivegin 0)
USK: Vaughn 17 (12 reb), Elhotova 9, Skerovic 9 (Dubljevic 7, Viteckova 7, De Forge 3, Lardy 0)

UMMC Ekaterinburg – Novi Zagreb 83-77
UMMC: Taurasi 25, Gruda 17, Petrakova 14, Dominguez 12 (Parker 6, Kobryn 2, Nolan 2)
Zagreb: Mandir 20, Vrdoljak 15 (10 reb), Mazic 15, Pavetic 10, Vandersloot 9 (Williams 2)