No Final Four

... for Ros Casares or Candice this season. They couldn't hang in against the two-time defending champion on its home court — not with Sylvia Fowles scoring 23 points and pulling down 13 rebounds and Diana Taurasi scoring 22 and Sue Bird 15 and Lauren Jackson 12 and ...

Spartak won 79-70 and advances to the Euroleague Final Four. That made them very happy. Here's the Game Card: Game report, box score, play-by-play and photo gallery.

Another Final Four for Candice?

European Women's basketball teams have been competing in the Euroleague quarterfinals, which are best two-out-of-three contests. Ros Casares (Candice's team) are playing against two-time defending champion Spartak, the Russian team that starts Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Sylvia Fowles.

Spartak won the first game and Ros Casares won the second one.  Candice has taken a back seat to her more experienced colleagues, but contributes valuable time off the bench. The teams meet again in Moscow on Wednesday night, Feb 25th, to determine which advances to the Final Four. The Final Four games will be played on April 3rd and 5th.

Fenerbahce, the team on which Kristen and Nicole play, also made it to the quarterfinals playing against UMMC, a Russian team from Ekaterinburg. New (whose Turkish name is Nevin Nevlin) was the top performer in the first game with 23 points and seven rebounds, but Fenerbahce was trounced by UMMC. UMMC scraped out a win in the final seconds of the second game, so Fenerbahce is out of the competition.

New writes about those two games and more in the most recent post to her blog.

Happy Birthday, Candice!

Today, Valentine's Day, is Candice's 22nd birthday. LynxBasketball took the occasion to call Candice and ask about her birthday and Valentine's Day plans, her time in Spain and what she thinks of her new teammates. Read more...