Taurasi Still Head of the EuroLeague Pack

Dec. 3, 2009 - 2009-10 EuroLeague Results & Standings

U.S. players continue to dominate the scoring ranks after six weeks of EuroLeague play, with Diana Taurasi holding onto the No. 1 position for the sixth straight week with a 22.4 ppg. average. She's followed by Angel McCoughtry (20.3 ppg.), Candice Dupree (19.3 ppg.), DeLisha Milton-Jones (19.0 ppg.) and Rebekkah Brunson (18.2 ppg.) rounding out the top five. Additionally, Janel Burse is leading all rebounders (12.8 rpg.), Dupree (10.3 rpg.) is second and Brunson (10.0 rpg.) lists third.

Three undefeated teams remain after six weeks of play, however, two of them came close to falling out of that elite club, going down to the wire in their games this week. A missed Sidney Spencer 3-point attempt at the end of the game kept Rivas Ecopolis perfect at 6-0 after an 82-79 scare against KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow, which has just one win to its credit this season. Wisla Can-Pack Krakow also breathed a sigh of relief in a four-point, 62-58, victory over Halcon Avenida Salamanca, which has two losses on the year and both to the Polish club. As expected, Spartak Moscow Region (5-0) had another blowout, this time an 82-65 win over Frisco Sika Brno (4-2).

In the biggest EuroLeague news of the week, it was announced that Lauren Jackson would not return to join her friends at Spartak Moscow Region to help them win a fourth straight EuroLeague title. Instead she will return to compete in Australia's WNBL.

Incidentally, because last week we were busy stuffing a turkey and then our faces, there was no EuroLeague Week 5 update. However, from looking over most of the results, not much changed in the standings and yes, Diana Taurasi remained at the head of the EuroLeague scoring class.

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Group A
UMMC Ekaterinburg (5-1) and Ros Casares (5-1) retained their co-lead status at the top of Group A standings, while basement dwelling TEO Vilnius (0-6) and TTT Riga (1-5), with just one victory to its credit look less and less likely to advance past this round. Cras Basket Taranto (4-2) shook up the middle of the pack a little bit with a 77-63 victory over Galatasaray (3-3,) making a case to advance to the next round in the new year.

UMMC Ekaterinburg 86, TEO Vilnius 37
TEO Vilnius never had a chance. The stacked UMMC Ekaterinburg team jumped out to a 20-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back en route to a 86-37 victory over the still winless Lithuanian club. USA National Team member Cappie Pondexter scored just two points, but grabbed seven boards and dished out eight assists. Also aiding in the win were former UConn Husky Svetlana Abrosimova and French standout Sandrine Gruda, who posted 15 points apiece. On the other side of the coin, Americans Renee Montgomery had eight points and three assists and Quanitra Hollingsworth added two points and six boards. Serbian Milka Bjelica led TEO with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Ros Casares 78, TTT Riga 54
Ros Casares surged past TTT Riga 78-54 as two-time Olympic and World Championship gold medalist DeLisha Milton-Jones posted a well-rounded game with 12 points, a team-high seven rebounds and a pair of assists. Becky Hammon scored a season-high 18 points with no assists and Spaniard Anna Montanana notched 13 points and six assists.

Cras Basket Taranto 77, Galatasaray 63
This game broke the tie between the third and fourth place teams in Group A with Cras Basket Taranto taking the leap to third place with a 77-63 victory at home against Galatasary. Former USA National Team member Rebekkah Brunson was instrumental in the win with 15 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists, while Americans Megan Mahoney (15 points) and Michelle Greco (19) were a boost for the Italian squad, which went up 16-10 at the first quarter break and 32-21 at halftime, in the win. Galatasaray received a team-high 26 point effort from Sophia Young, while Katie Douglas added 16 points.

Group B
In a battle for the bottom two slots in Group B, Gospic Croatia (1-5) collected its first EuroLeague victory of the season to move into fifth place after downing ESB Lille Metropole (1-5) 85-63. Wisla Can-Pack (6-0) remained undefeated after a 62-58 scare from Halcon Avenida (4-2), while Beretta-Famila Schio (4-2) edged MiZo Pecs 2010 (2-4) 69-62.

Gospic Croatia 85, ESB Lille Metropole 63
Five players scored in double digits as Gospic Croatia finally got into the win column with a 85-63 win over ESB Lille Metropole. Andja Jelavic led her team in victory with 19 points and nine rebound s, while Americans Carla Thomas and Lamisha Augustine contributed 17 and 10 points, respectively. France's Emilie Gomis top-scored for the French club with 15 points, while the USA's Jolene Anderson scored 14 and grabbed nine boards.

Wisla Can-Pack Krakow 62, Halcon Avenida Salamanca 58
Wisla Can-Pack is still thanking their lucky stars that CSKA folded and doing so by rolling through Group B. This week the Polish club that snuck into EuroLeague play at the last minute after the Moscow team dropped out handed 2009 Final Four participant Halcon Avenida its second loss of the season, 62-58. Janell Burse posted her sixth consecutive double-double with 16 points and 12 boards to lead her team to victory, which didn't come easily.

Trailing 32-27 at home at the half, Wisla narrowed the gap in the third quarter, but still trailed 44-41 with 10 minutes to play. The home team took the lead early in the fourth quarter, but Salamanca battled back and was up 56-55 with a little over two minutes to play. Spain's Marta Fernandez grabbed a defensive board, passed the ball to Brazil's Izi Castro Marques, who put her squad ahead for good, 57-56, at 2:16. Izi's bucket sparked a 7-0 run, from which the visitors would never recover. With the clock winding down, Salamanca made the game's final bucket

In addition to Burse's double-double, Wisla was led by 19 points from Fernandez, Israel's Liron Cohen added 16 points and Izi scored nine. Salamanca had four players score in double figures, including Le'Coe Willingham with 14, Sancho Lyttle produced 12 points and eight boards, and Spain's Isabel Sanchez and Russia's Olga Podkovalnikova pitched in 10 points apiece.

Beretta-Famila Schio 69, MiZo Pécs 2010 62
Utilizing a strong first half that left the hosts in front 40-28 at the midway break, Beretta Famila Schio held on for the 69-62 victory over the struggling MiZo Pécs 2010. Congo native Mudju Ngoyisa top scored for the Italian team with 22 points and Marissa Coleman pitched in eight points. MiZo got a team-high of 14 points from Hungarian national Anna Vajda.

Group C
ZVVZ USK Prague (4-2) picked up another win, this time at the hands of Bourges Basket (2-4), 70-47. Good Angels Kosice (3-3) evened its slate to 3-3 after defeating a visiting MKB Euroleasing (2-4) 75-58 to remain in the playoff hunt; while KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow (1-5) gave Rivas Ecopolis (6-0) a run for its money, but Ecopolis remained among the undefeated teams with a narrow 82-79 win.

ZVVZ USK Prague 70, Bourges Basket 47
Lindsay Whalen hit 5-of-7 tries inside the arc, made a perfect 8-of-8 from the line in providing 18 points, four rebounds and three assists to lead her ZVVZ USK Prague squad to a 70-47 victory over Bourges Basket. USK Prague held a 29-25 lead at halftime, but blew open the game with a 22-12 third quarter assault that saw Whalen contribute five points. With the win, the Czech club remains in second place in Group C and will face undefeated Rivas Ecopolis next week.

Good Angels Kosice 75, MKB Euroleasing Sopron 58
Behind a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds from Candice Dupree and a game-high 24 points from Angel McCoughtry, Good Angels Kosice topped MKB Euroleading Sopron 75-58. Dupree also had three assists and three steals, and McCoughtry added five boards, five assists and three steals. Serbian Jelena Milovanovic posted a team-high of 17 points for the Hungarian side and Amber Holt finished with nine points.

Rivas Ecopolis 82, KSSSE AZS-PWSZ Gorzow 79
Rivas Ecopolis fought off a determined Gorzow squad, and got a bit of luck when Sidney Spencer's game-tying 3-point attempt with nine seconds to go missed its mark, and earned an 82-79 road win. Spencer, who made 5-of-8 3-pointers prior to her final attempt, finished tied with Belarussian Yuliya Dureika for team scoring honors with 17 points.

Rivas eked out its win behind the strength of a well-rounded scoring effort that saw five players score in double digits, including Spain's Anna Cruz with 19 points. Crystal Langhorne once again delivered with 12 points and 10 rebounds, marking her second double-double of the season.

Featuring a knotted score at halftime, Rivas stormed out of the locker room to go up 10 points at the end of the third quarter, 66-56. The Polish side fought back in the final stanza after Spencer hit a three to spark a 7-0 run that put Gorzow within two points, 74-72, with 2:12 on the clock. However, Rivas was simply too strong and held off the home team for the win.

Group D
The Group D standings are starting to shake out with no surprise as to which team is leading the pack. With a perfect 5-0 slate, Spartak Moscow Region tops the standings, followed by Frisco Sika Brno (4-2), which recorded its only two losses against the three-time defending champs, in second place. Fenerbahce (4-2) upped its record and slipped into third place after outscoring its hosts by 10 points in the fourth quarter and earned a 69-63 over Lotos Gdynia (2-4). The final two slots are filled in by Szeviép Seged (1-4), which defeated Tarbes GB (1-5) this week for its first victory of the season.

Szeviép Seged 82, Tarbes GB 66
While the odds of Szeviép Seged advancing past the preliminary round are slim, they finally got off the schneid and produced their first win of the season, 82-66 over Tarbes GB. Giving their hometown crowd something to cheer about, Szeviép stormed to a 24-9 advantage in the first quarter and expanded its lead to 46-23 by halftime. The visiting French team was never able to recover and suffered its fifth loss of the season. The Hungarian club, which has no Americans on its roster, was led by Lithuanian Vaida Sipaviciute's 16 points and 12 boards. Tarbes GB was paced by 21 points from Frida Eldebrink and also received 11 points and eight rebounds from Charde Houston.

Spartak Moscow Region 82, Frisco Sika Brno 65
Spartak Moscow Region raced out to an 11-point, 26-15, lead after the first quarter and remained in the lead the rest of the way in capturing its sixth straight win of the year, an 82-65 victory over hosts Frisco Sika Brno. USA Olympic gold medalists Sylvia Fowles and Diana Taurasi combined for all nine points in Spartak's 9-2 opening run. The duo accounted for 15 of Spartak's first 17 points as Taurasi scored eight points and Fowles seven in less than eight minutes. By halftime Taurasi had 13 of her eventual 23 points, while Fowles had 10 of her 18 point total. Janel McCarville added eight points, eight rebounds and three assists. Fowles led her team with nine boards and four steals.

Czech national Hana Horakova paced the losing effort with 16 points, while Americans DeWonna Bonner and Taj McWilliams-Franklin posted 10 and seven points, respectively. McWilliams-Franklin came up with a team-best seven rebounds.

Fenerbahce 69, Lotos Gdynia 63
Fenerbache took another giant step forward in its quest to advance to the next round after surging past host Lotos Gdynia in the fourth quarter for a 69-63 victory. Trailing 48-44 heading into the final stanza, Fenerbache tied up the contest at 50-all early in the quarter. From there the teams swapped leads and with 1:40 to play, USA National Team hopeful Shameka Christon hit a jumper to give Lotos a 63-62 edge. However, former USA team member Nicole Powell quickly struck back for Fener for the game's final lead change, 64-63. From there, Fener grabbed the boards on the host's final three shots, while scoring the final five points for the important victory.

Turkish native Nevriye Yilmaz led Fener with 16 points, six boards and six assists; Sutton-Brown finished with 16 points and five rebounds; and Powell scored seven points and grabbed five boards. Serbian Ivana Matovic led Lotos with 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists; while Christon had eight points and four boards and Alana Beard, another USA hopeful also scored eight points.