Keeping up with Kayla

Kayla has been blogging since she arrived in Kosice where she is playing professional basketball. Her most recent post begins, "Happy New Year! My Christmas break was amazing!" Read more...

Brooke is best performer in Italian League

From Eurobasket News

American power forward Brooke Smith (191-F/C-84, agency: LBM Management) put on an extraordinary performance in the last round for Comense, receiving a Eurobasket.com Player of the Week award for round 12.

The 27-year old player was the main contributor (22 points, seven rebounds) to her team's victory, helping them to outclass Alcamo (#12, 1-11) with 26-point margin 71-45. Comense maintains the 4th position in Italian A1. They would have been even better if they hadn't lost a few games earlier this season. Comense will need more victories to improve their 8-4 record. Smith turned to be Comense's top player in her first season with the team. Former Stanford University star has very solid stats this year. Smith is in league's top in points (7th best: 13.3ppg), rebounds (6th best: 8.3rpg) and averages impressive 51.9% FGP.

Alumni abroad - midseason report

This is how our Stanford alumnae are doing about halfway through the European professional basketball season.

Euroleague Women, the international European competition, has completed ten weeks of first round games. After four more first round weeks, the top four teams in each group will advance to the second round in late February.

Kristin Newlin, Fenerbahce

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

Fenerbache is unbeaten in Euroleague play and is first in its group with an 8-0 win-loss record. Kristen is averaging 2.6 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game.

Fenerbache leads the TKBL League with an 11-1 win-loss record. Kristin comes off the bench for about 13 minutes per game. She averages 5.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game in league play.

Nicole Powell, Wisla Can-Pack

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

In Euroleague play, Wisla is first in its group with an 8-2 win-loss record. Nicole is averaging 15.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game.

Wisla leads the PLKK League with a 14-1 win-loss record. Nicole comes off the bench for Wisla and plays about 24 minutes per game. She averages 9.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists in league play.

Kayla Pedersen, Good Angels Kosice

Good Angels is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the Slovakian Extraliga league.

In Euroleague play, Good Angels is third in its group (the same group as Wisla) with a 6-4 win-loss record. Kayla is averaging 7.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.

Good Angels leads the Extraliga League with a perfect 13-0 record. Kayla comes off the bench for Good Angels and plays about 25 minutes per game. She averages 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists in league play.

Jayne Appel, Samsun

Samsun stands 6th (of 12) in the Turkish TKBL League with a 7-5 win-loss record.

Jayne is in the starting five. She averages almost a double-double (10.3 points and 9.7 rebounds). She also has 2.0 assists, 1.2 blocks and 0.9 steals per game. She ranks 5th in the league in blocks per game and 6th in rebounds per game.

Candice Wiggins, Besiktas

Besiktas stands 10th in the Turkish TKBL League with a 3-9 win-loss record. They signed Candice late in December as they started to shuffle things up because they were "having a nightmare season".

It's too soon to tell what impact Candice will have on the team — she's played in only three games. She averaged 10.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steals. She has made five of 24 three-point attempts.

Cori Enghusen, Besiktas

Cori comes off the bench for about eight minutes per game for Besiktas. She averages 2.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.6 blocks.

Jeanette Pohlen, Tarsus

Tarsus stands 11th in the Turkish TKBL League with a 3-9 win-loss record.

Jeanette comes off the bench for Tarsus for almost 25 minutes per game. She averages 10.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals. She has made 12 of 36 three-point attempts.

Jillian Harmon, Comense

Comense stands 4th (of 12) in the Italian A1 League with a 7-4 win-loss record.

Jillian is in the starting five for Comense and plays about 30 minutes per game. She leads the team in rebounding (9.2 rpg) and steals (2.5 spg) and is their second-best scorer (12.5 ppg). She ranks 3rd in the league in rebounding, 8th in steals and 9th in scoring.

Brooke Smith, Comense

Brooke also starts for Comense. She stands just behind Jillian in the statistics: 29 minutes, 12.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. She ranks 5th in the league in rebounding.

Cissy Pierce, Halle Lions

Cissy left the team in late October in order to get surgical correction of a foot problem.