Here is a round up of day one of the Euroleague Women Final 8 from Ekaterinburg.
Group A
The hosts UMMC Ekaterinburg began their Final 8 campaign with a convincing 68-45 win over CCC Polkowice.
A 17 point, 13 rebound double-double from American Candace Parker helped the favourites along the way as they eased past their Polish counterparts.
“I have tremendous respect for CCC Polkowice as a team and I think to hold them to just 45 points on a night when we turned the ball over, was the foundation for the win,” said Ekaterinburg coach Olaf Lange said.
“I am very happy with the result and especially because we didn’t play in the play-offs.”
Magdalena Leciejewska led Polkowice with 10 points.
Good Angels Kosice were also comfortable as they defeated Galatasaray 71-65 despite a late comeback from the Turkish side.
The Slovakians never looked like relinquishing the lead though as they join the hosts at 1-0.
Sancho Lyttle led the victors with 15 points.
Group B
In front of a mere 250 spectators, Sparta&K defeated Famila Schio 88-79.
Tied up at 58-58 and with Schio keeping pace with Sparta&K a game-winning 17-4 run either side of the third quarter break proved decisive. Their burst of scoring included two big triples from Seimone Augustus and Elisa Aguilar, in addition to a three-point play from Marina Kuzina.
Augustus and Candace Dupree led the winners with 18 points each. Jantel Lavender was Schio’s standout with 32 points and 10 rebounds.
“Offensively I thought we were fine in this game but our defence definitely needs more work, since we gave up more points than we would have liked,” Dupree said afterwards.
“(Jantel) Lavender played great for them but I think if we play defence like that for the rest of the week, things might not go too well for us.”
Fenerbahce had little trouble downing Bourges Basket 69-44, thanks in part to a 22-4 third quarter burst.
Angel McCoughtry led the Istanbul side with 17 points.
