No EuroLeague Final Four for Nicole or Kristen

Wisla Can-Pack (Nicole Powell's team) and Fenerbahce (Kristen Newlin's team) both were swept 0-2 in the best-of-three quarterfinals round of EuroLeague Women 2011.

Wisla lost to Spanish team Halcon Avenida 70-87, 60-72. Over the two games, Nicole scored 20 points, hit three 3-pointers, and made 50% of her field goal attempts.

Fenerbahce lost their two best players, Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor in January (Taylor left Fenerbahce in a show of solidarity with Taurasi). In spite of that, they were undefeated in EuroLeague play up to this point, but they couldn't hold off the strong Russian team Sparta in the quarterfinals. They lost 78-86, 56-74.

Sparta advances to the EuroLeague Final Four for the fifth consecutive year. They have many members familiar to American basketball fans. The head coach is Pokey Chatman. The team includes Epiphanny Prince, Sue Bird and Taj McWilliams. Prince led her team in scoring with 19 points in the first game and 22 in the second. McWilliams had game-high 12 rebounds in the first game and 10 in the second.

Kristen, who twittered a couple of weeks ago that she was suffering from neck spasms, did not play in the first game and played just three minutes in the second game.

There is more information about the quarterfinals games here:
Wisla/Avenida, game 1
Wisla/Avenida, game 2
Fenerbahce/Sparta, game 1
Fenerbahce/ Sparta, game 2

Candice is feeling her best ever

By Tim Leighton, Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

Minnesota Lynx guard Candice Wiggins always has been upbeat, but her enthusiasm is in overdrive this offseason in the wake of rehabilitation for a torn Achilles' tendon in her left leg that forced her to miss the last 20 games of last season.

Wiggins, who turned 24 on Valentine's Day, reflects on her rehabilitation and her excitement for the 2011 season. Read more...

Alumni abroad – midseason report

This is how our Stanford alumnae are doing about three-quarters of the way through the European professional basketball season.

Nicole Powell, Wisla Can-Pack

Wisla is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the Polish PLKK league.

Wisla has advanced to the Euroleague quarter-finals, which will be played late in February. It placed second in its group with a 7-3 win-loss record in the qualifying rounds, then swept the eighth-finals (16 teams) 2-0. Nicole, who did not join the team until early January, played only in the last four games. She's averaging 15.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists.

Wisla leads the PLKK league with an 18-1 win-loss record. Nicole is one of the starting five and is averaging 11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 3.0 steals.

Brooke Smith, Tarbes

Brooke began the season with Italian team Taranto, but transferred to Tarbes (which is in southern France near the Pyrenees) in December when the head coach from Tarbes decided that he needed more presence in the paint.

Tarbes is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the French LFB league.

Tarbes went 3-7 in the Euroleague qualifying rounds and is out of the competition. Brooke averaged 10.8 points and 6.7 rebounds. She had two double-doubles and ranked #8 in 2-pt field goal percentage (55.7%).

Tarbes is #2 of 14 in the LFB with an 11-3 win-loss record. Brooke comes off the bench and plays almost 20 minutes per game. She is averaging 6.5 points and 1.8 rebounds

Kristen Newlin, Fenerbahce

Fenerbahce is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the Turkish TKBL league.

In spite of losing Diana Taurasi early in January, Fenerbahce has advanced to the Euroleague quarter-finals with a perfect record. It won all ten qualifying round games and swept its Turkish rival Galatasaray in the eighth-finals. Kristen has played about nine minutes per game and is averaging 2.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.4 assists.

Fenerbahce is tied with Galatasary for #1 of 12 in the TBBL league, with 15-1 win-loss records. Kristen is playing about 15 minutes in the TKBL games and averaging 6.8 points and 3.6 rebounds

Cori Enghusen, Mersin

Mersin is in the Turkish TKBL league too. It ranks seventh of 12 in the league with a 7-9 record.

Cori plays about 15 minutes per game and averages 3.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.5 blocks.

Jillian Harmon, Comense

Comense's win-loss record is 7-9. It ranks seventh of 12 in the Italy A-1 League.

Jillian comes off the bench for about 25 minutes per game. She is second on the team in points (10.0) and rebounds (5.3) per game.

Cissy Pierce, Rhein-Main Baskets

Rhein-Main Baskets' win-loss record is 5-12. It ranks 10th of 12 in the German DBBL League.

Cissy is in the starting five. She leads the team in points per game (13.7) and is second in rebounds (6.5).

Cissy sinks a buzzer-beater

Cissy Pierce, in her third season with Rhein-Main Baskets in Germany, is her team''s top scorer with 13.7 points per game.

She sank a long-g-g-g winning three at the buzzer last week. This is the second time this season that she's done that.

Cissy is number 8 in black. Notice the player on the opposing team who just falls to the floor in disbelief!

Goodenbour flogs Anteaters

Molly Goodenbour, in her third season as head coach at UC Irvine, has brought the Anteaters from a 7-23 win-loss record to 13-9, their first time in double-digit victories in eight seasons.

But the Anteaters have been painfully inconsistent, and Goodenbour is using stern measures to get her team to play with urgency for the remaining half of their conference season. Read more...