Fenerbahce one game away from title.

Fenerbache won the second game of the best-of-five finals of the Turkish Basketball League playoffs today. They defeated Mersin 102- 63, which, as the game report says, took a big bite out of Mersin's title hopes.

Mersin's last chance to recover is the third game on Friday at Mersin (the first two games were in Istanbul).

Fenerbahce distributed the offense. Six players scored in double figures. Nicole had 10 points and  two rebounds. Kristen had 11 points and one rebound.

Only ex Blue Devils Mistie Williams and Lindsey Harding were effective for Mersin.  Olympia was held to two points and four rebounds. She is being very well-defended in the photo above by 6'-5" Yilmaz Nevriye.

Here are the game report and the box score.

Kristen, Nicole & Olympia compete for Turkish league championship

Kristen Newlin and Nicole Powell played together at Stanford in 2003-4, Kristen's freshman year and Nicole's senior year.  Olympia  Scott ('98) preceded both of them. Today the three played together in Turkey, in the first game of the best-of-five finals of the Turkish Basketball League playoffs.  

Kristen and Nicole play for Fenerbahce, a  Turkish team located in Istanbul.  Going into the playoffs, Fenerbahce leads the Turkish League with a 17-3 record. In today's game, Kristen  (her Turkish name is Nevin Nevlin) had 13 points, eight rebounds, an assist and a block. Nicole had one point, three rebounds , two assists and three steals.

Olympia  plays for Mersin, a town on the southern coast of Turkey. Mersin is third in the league with a 15-5 record. Olympia is a starter for Mersin. In today's game, she had 10 points, the team-high seven rebounds, an assist and two steals.

Fenerbahce defeated Mersin 87 - 61.    Here is the box score.  The second finals game will be played on Tuesday, the third on Friday and the fourth and fifth, if required, next weekend.  

I couldn't find any photos of today's game or any of Kristen and Nicole playing together, but here is one from Kristen's blog of them out to dinner with their teammates.

Candice's team wins league championship

Candice Wiggins played just six minutes and scored only four points, but her team, Ros Casares of Valencia, won its third straight Spanish League title by beating Perfumerias Avenida 70-66 in Salamanca on Friday to sweep the best-of-three championship series 2-0.

It was a hard-fought game  -- very nervous in last minutes -- according to this  game report  from Eurobasket News.

Candice nears league championship in Spain

Candice joined Ros Casares-Valencia of the Liga Feminina (Spanish women's basketball league) in January after recovering from knee surgery. She has averaged 19 minutes and 8.6 points per game as Ros Casares led the league with a 25-1 record. Now Ros Carares is within one victory of its third straight league championship. In best-of-three series, they won the semifinals in two games and today defeated Perfumeria Avenida 96-56 in the first game of the finals. Candice averaged 11.7 points in those three playoff games. The second game is on Friday in Salamanca and the third game, if required, on Sunday in Valencia. Candice is scheduled to rejoin the Minnesota Lynx after her season in Spain is complete. The Lynx's first (and only) exhibition game is May 23.

Cissy celebrates league championship

Cissy and her  teammates  celebrate the victory that earned them the Southern Germany League championship. Rhein-Main Baskets won the best-of-three league championship series against KuSG Leimen, who had led the league all season. 

That's Cissy (#15) on the left. Google translates the headline to "Radiant Joy Winners".

Cissy has played a leading role in the team's success.  She had 20 points (including two 3-pointers), eight rebounds, two assists, a steal and two blocks in the final game. She scored her fifth consecutive double-double in the first game of the series.

Krista Rappahahn honored for high school accomplishments

Cardinal fans have known Krista Rappahahn as an outstanding student athlete during her four years at Stanford and in the three years since then. It's no surprise to discover that she was also an outstanding student athlete before that at the Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut, where she:

• Averaged 23.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 3.0 assists as a senior and finished as NFA's leading scorer (male or female) with 2,048 points.
• Led the team to a 106-2 record,  three state championships and four Eastern  Connecticut Conference titles.
• Was second in her class, took all advanced placement courses and earned a 4.317 grade point average

In 2002 the Hartford Courant selected her as the "Best of the Best" in girls basketball and reported some of the accomplishments that made the label a perfect fit. Read more... It was announced recently that "Krista Rappahahn - High School Player" is to be inducted into the Connecticut Basketball Hall of Fame for her contributions to the enhancement of women's basketball in Connecticut. Read more...

Jamie Carey retires

Jamie Carey, one of the all-time "if only ..." players in the heart of Cardinal fans, has retired from professional basketball. Read more...

WNBA 2009

Jillian was not selected in the WNBA 2009 draft. 

There were five other prospects from the Pac-10:

• Briann January (Arizona State) was selected in the first round by the Indiana Fever.
• Ashley Walker (California) was selected in the first round by the Seattle Storm.
• Camille LeNoir (USC) was selected in the second round by the Washington Mystics.
• Sybil Dosty (Arizona State) and Devanei Hampton (California)  were not selected.

This is the complete draft board.

The current status of other Cardinal alumnae in the WNBA:

• Candice Wiggins returns to the Minnesota Lynx for her second season.
• Brooke Smith has a training-camp contract with the Phoenix Mercury, where she played last season.
• Nicole Powell returns to the Sacramento Monarchs for her sixth season in the WNBA, her fifth with the Monarchs.

Cissy in the pros

Cissy is playing professional basketball for Rhein-Main Baskets, a professional team located in Langen Germany, about 25 km south of Frankfurt. She uses her real name Alissa instead of her nickname Cissy.

She is a key member of  the team. In their last five games she averaged 19.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. She scored double-doubles in the last three games — 18/16, 22/10 and 18/11. Overall she is making 59% of her field goal attempts and 22% of her 3-pointers.

This quote (awkwardly translated by Google) sounds just like the Cissy we knew at Stanford , "In the athletic activities of Cissy Pierce was a murmur through the audience. [head coach] Deetjen was also impressed by the newcomer."

Candice's observations about the NCAA Tournament

The photo is of Candice and Tara in the last minute of last season's NCAA semifinal game between Stanford and UConn. Today the San Francisco Chronicle published a special report from Candice with her observations about this season's NCAA Tournament. She predicts that Stanford will get to St. Louis for the semifinal game against UConn and ... (Read more...)