EuroLeague Final Four Set

Vol. 10 - Feb. 20 (updated Feb. 25), 2009 (Vol. 1 // Vol. 2 // Vol. 3.1 // Vol. 4 // Vol. 5 // Vol. 6 // Vol. 7 // Vol. 8 // Vol. 9)

- 2008-09 EuroLeague Results
- Select USA Basketball Players: 2008-09 EuroLeague Stats
- Official EuroLeague Site
- Have a comment or suggestion? Let us know!

Three teams swept their best-of-three quarterfinals match-ups to advance to the 2009 EuroLeague Final Four. However, Spartak Moscow Region and Ros Casares went to a three-game series with two-time defending champs Spartak taking the final victory. MKB Euroleasing Sopron, behind 21 points from Jelena Milovanovic, took the series with a 70-63 victory over Bourges Basket; Olympic gold medalist Cappie Pondexter posted 17 points in aiding UMMC Ekaterinburg to a come-from-behind 70-68 victory over Fenerbache SK; while Halcon Avenida, aided by a combined 37 points and 18 rebounds from Michelle Snow and Le'Coe Willingham, earned an 81-76 win over MiZo Pecs 2010 for their first trip to the EuroLeague Final Four.

2009 will mark the first Final Four for both Halcon Avenida and the young MKB Euroleasing squad, while it's UMMC Ekaterinburg's third trip to the Final Four. The Russian squad took home the crown in 2003 and finished in third place last season behind Spartak Moscow Region and Gambrinus Brno. With Spartak prevailing in the third and final game, their inclusion in the Final Four marks the two-time defending champion's third trip to the finals.

The semifinals games will be contested April 3, while the championship and consolation matches will be held April 5. The site, determined at a later date, will be at one of the four teams' home courts.

Seimone Augustus Advances To Another Final Four
Seimone Augustus, who is no stranger to advancing to the semifinals in big tournaments, advancing to yet another Final Four after leading her Galatasary squad to a two-game sweep of Chevakata. She helped LSU advance to three NCAA Final Fours, won the 2007 EuroCup title with Moscow Dynamo and played in no less than eight semifinal games in international tournaments, most notably clinching gold at the 2008 Olympics, 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and 2003 FIBA U21 World Championship.

Scoring 16 points, grabbing five boards and nabbing a pair of steals, Augustus helped her Galatasary squad clinch the first game of the quarterfinals two-game series against Chevakata 79-65 in Bologda, Russia, in Game 1. Augustus then posted 18 points in the 55-49 Game 2 victory at home in Istanbul.

In the first game Sophia Young (19 points) and Marina Kress (18) led Galatasary, while Turk guard Isil Alben contributed 12 points and 12 assists for the winners. The second game saw Young finish as the only other player in double digits with 13 points.

In the first game, the Russian side saw Tatiana Bokareva score a game-high 21 points, while 2006-08 USA National Team member Loree Moore had eight points and three assists. In Game 2 Bokareva had a team-high of 14 points.

Halcon Avenida 81, MiZo Pecs 2010 76
Le'Coe Willingham tallied 20 points and four rebounds, while 2006-08 USA National Team member Michelle Snow added a double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds to help their Halcon Avenida squad to a 81-76 win and a berth to the 2009 EuroLeague Final Four in Pecs, Hungary.

After gaining the upper hand in the best-of-three series with an 85-63 victory at home on Tuesday, Halcon Avenida found itself even with the hosts at 62-all after Nicole Ohlde sunk a pair from the charity stripe with less than seven minutes to play.

The game remained close from there and with two minutes remaining and the Salamanca team up by one, 74-73, Snow netted a pair from the line to give her squad a three-point cushion. After a Pecs miss, Isa Sanchez was sent to the line and followed Snow's lead by making both her tries to put the visiting team up 78-73 with 27 remaining.

The game was close from the start and MiZo Pecs owned a slim 41-39 edge at the half and with one quarter remaining the score was tied at 56-apiece.

EuroLeague Women All-Star Anke De Mondt finished with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists in the win.

Pecs used a balanced attack as Ohlde registered 15 points, Dalma Ivanyi had 14, Anna Vajda scored 13, Szilvia Torok finished with 12 and Kelly Mazzante chipped in 10.

MKB Euroleasing 70, Bourges 63
Nineteen-year-old Jelena Milovanovic contributed 21 points, eight rebounds and two assists as her MKB Euroleasing squad downed Bourges Basket 70-63 in Sopron, Hungary, for the right to play in this year's Final Four.

Leading 25-22 at the half and 57-47 at the end of the third quarter, the Hungarian side held off Bourges Basket's late push for the win.

Milovanovic and the Sopron club were aided in victory by 21 points from Katalin Honti.

Emmeline Ndongue, who scored 33 points on 13-of-20 from the field, was the French club's high scorer, while Ana Lelas was the only other Bourges player to hit double digits with 10 points.

UMMC Ekaterinburg 70, Fenerbache SK 68
UMMC Ekaterinburg earned a come-from-behind 70-68 victory over Fenerbache SK in the final seconds in Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday night. 2008 Olympic gold medalist Cappie Pondexter led the way for the Russian club with 17 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

UMMC Ekaterinburg struck first, but Tammy Sutton-Brown layed in a basket at 8:23 to give the home team a lead (4-2) it would not relinquish until midway through the final quarter. Trailing 44-31 at halftime, UMMC chipped away at the deficit and Deanna Nolan sunk a pair of free throws with 4:44 to play to put her club on top 65-64 and Ekaterinburg was able to hold on for the win.

In addition to Pondexter's contributions, the Russian club received 14 points and eight rebounds from Sandrine Gruda, 12 points and seven rebounds from Maria Stepanova, and 12 points and three boards from Nolan.

Sutton-Brown capped her night with 14 points and six boards, Nevin Nevlin added 12 points and four rebounds, Nevirye Yilmaz also scored 12, Birsel Vardarli notched 11 points, while American Nicole Powell had eight points and four boards.

Ros Casares 73, Spartak Moscow Region 71 (Game 2)
Despite receiving 33 points from two-time Olympic gold medalist Diana Taurasi, Spartak Moscow Region was unable to comeback from an early deficit as two-time Olympic gold medalist DeLisha Milton-Jones and Ros Casares were able to push back a late Russian surge for the 73-71 victory on Friday night in Valencia, Spain. The three-game series is now even at one victory apiece and the teams will travel to Russia to face off in the final game on Wednesday.

Trailing 65-50 at the start of the final quarter, Spartak reeled off 11 unanswered points, cutting the gap to four, 65-61, on a Sylvia Fowles jumper with 5:57 left to go in the contest.

Brazil's Erika De Souza got a tip-in to temporarily halt Spartak's scoring spree. But the Russian club managed to hit the next six consecutive points to knot the game at 67-all with 2:52 to play and at the 2:07 mark the game was again tied, 69-69.

Amaya Valdemoro scored four straight points, two from the line and one field goal to put the home team up by four, 73-69, with 47 seconds remaining.

Taurasi cut the gap back to two with a pair from the charity stripe and Spartak had the chance to tie or win it after Valdemoro missed a jumper and Fowles grabbed the rebound with six seconds to go. But as they raced to the other end, Laia Palau reached in to steal the ball away from Sue Bird and win it for Casares.

Valdemoro had 21 points for Casares while Milton-Jones added 16 and eight rebounds, and De Souza finished with 11 points.

Spartak Moscow Region 79, Ros Casares Valencia 70 (Game 3)

Receiving a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds from Sylvia Fowles, 22 points from Diana Taurasi and 15 points and eight assists from Sue Bird, Spartak Moscow Region took the third and final game from Ros Casares 79-70 to advance to the 2009 EuroLeague Final Four.

DeLisha Milton-Jones was her team's top scorer with 18 points in the loss, which also saw Amaya Valdemoro hit 14 points.

'We played hard against a worthy opponent and it is a shame that not both of us can go to the Final Four,' Taurasi told FIBA Europe. 'We had to give our best to beat Ros Casares. Now we have to prepare for the Russian Cup and then the EuroLeague Final Four.'