April « 2009 « StormTracker - The Official Blog of the Seattle Storm

Archive for April, 2009

Spartak Forces Game 3

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Staring down potential early elimination from the Russian Superleague Playoffs, Spartak came through with a sizzling offensive performance Wednesday to force a deciding Game 3 on Saturday. Spartak shot 57.4 percent from the field in a 101-80 road win over CSKA Moscow. The game was tight at halftime, with Spartak leading by one point, but they owned the second half 55-35.

Diana Taurasi powered the offensive explosion with 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Lauren Jackson added 20 while hitting nine of 15 shots, and Tatiana Schegoleva chipped in 18. Sue Bird finished with 11 points, five rebounds and four assists. Ann Wauters, who scored 26 and grabbed 12 rebounds, was the primary offensive threat for CSKA.

The teams will be back in Vidnoe for a winner-take-all Game 3 on Saturday. The victor will face UMMC Ekaterinburg, which completed a two-game sweep of Dynamo Moscow with Wednesday’s 71-62 road triumph. Dynamo led by as many as 14 in the first half after holding Ekaterinburg to seven first-quarter points, but again the game turned after halftime, Ekaterinburg outscoring Dynamo 45-27 to win going away.

Janell Burse had 11 points and seven rebounds for Dynamo in the loss. She and go-to players Anete Jekabsone-Zogota, Marina Kuzina and Belinda Snell combined for 53 of Dynamo’s 62 points as the supporting cast failed to offer much scoring. By contrast, Ekaterinburg had seven players score at least six points, led by 16 and 12 boards from Sandrine Gruda.

Posted in overseas | Comments Off

Dance Troupe Auditions Kick Off

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

On Tuesday evening, 65 young dancers gathered at the Furtado Center, the Storm’s official practice facility, to try out for the 2009 Storm Dance Troupe. Over the course of the three-hour session, the kids – ages 5-15 – learned a short routine to Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” and then performed for the panel of judges consisting of Dance Troupe Manager Sheena Shive, members of the Storm front office, and frequent Storm in-arena host Shellie Hart of KUBE 93’s Old Skool Lunch.

The talent among this group of dancers is sure to give Storm fans the best Troupe KeyArena has seen in the Storm’s 10-year history. At the end of the night, 41 dancers were asked to return Thursday night for the second round of auditions. Stay tuned for more updates on this year’s Dance Troupe selection.

The third and final round of auditions takes place this Saturday at the Alderwood Mall Food Court from 12-3 p.m. and is open to the public! We invite you to check out the action and cheer on the finalists.
- Kelly Nigh

Photos from Tuesday night:

The dancers listen to instructions …

… then it was time to learn the routine.

The group of dancers poses for a photo at the end of the evening with Hart …

before taking a silly picture.

Posted in troupe | Comments Off

Gearlds, Athinaikos Finish Unbeaten

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Congrats to Katie Gearlds. The Storm forward and her Athinaikos teammates completed a perfect 26-0 season in Greek A1 League play by beating Panathinaikos 78-68 over the weekend. Gearlds went out in style, scoring a game-high 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting. She added six rebounds and five assists as well.

Athinaikos had previously secured the Greek title, holding a two-game lead on second-place Esperides Ravenna – both of whose losses came to Athinaikos. According to a translation of the Athinaikos Web site, “The time of the coronation had everything: Fireworks, confetti, champagne, “OLE”, clapping and emotion.” I’m sure Gearlds will have more details in a wrap-up of her overseas blog at some point in the near future.

While the season winds down, the action is just heating up in the Russian Superleague Playoffs. Semifinals started Sunday with CSKA Moscow surprising Spartak in Vidnoe, 84-70. Looking to reverse a disappointing season, CSKA was on fire offensively, shooting 58 percent from the field and from downtown. Ann Wauters had 19 points and 10 boards to lead five players in double-figures. None of Spartak’s stars had a big game. Sue Bird contributed six points and seven assists, while Lauren Jackson finished with 10 points. Euroleague Final Four hero Diana Taurasi was limited to 6-of-15 from the field, scoring 16 points.

Dynamo Moscow had an even rougher time of it in Game 1 at UMMC Ekaterinburg. Top-seeded Ekaterinburg rolled up 95 points, with Penny Taylor scoring 19 on cool 9-of-11 shooting. Janell Burse had 13 points and seven boards, outplaying Maria Stepanova, but did not get enough help. Belinda Snell (19) was the only Dynamo player to score double-figures with Anete Jekabsone-Zogota out of the lineup.

Playoffs started today in Italy, with Cras Basket Taranto blowing out Pool Comense 81-46 in Game 1. Suzy Batkovic scored 11 points, one of five Taranto players in double figures. Megan Mahoney paced Taranto with 25 points on 7-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Batkovic and company will go on the road for Tuesday’s Game 2 looking for a sweep.

This was the final weekend of the regular season in Spain. With a 69-63 loss to Olesa-Espanyol, Ibiza-PDV finished 14-12 and in seventh place. Shannon Johnson had four points in the loss, shooting 2-for-10 from the field in a tough outing. Ibiza will now take on Joventut Mariana in the 5th-8th playoffs (with EuroCup spots on the line for winners of these matchups). The series start on Saturday.

With Saturday’s 86-62 win over Clermont-Farrand (.pdf), Tarbes set up a showdown with traditional power Bourges on Wednesday with the regular-season LFB title on the line. Both teams are 24-1. On Saturday, Tarbes needed Tanisha Wright for just 18 minutes in the lopsided victory. She had four points and three assists.

Lastly, a note from Ireland, where her UL Aughnish squad passes along that the Storm’s Kristen O’Neill was awarded “Overseas Player of the Year.” O’Neill’s top competition for the award might have been Mel Thomas, who will join her in training camp with the Storm.

Posted in overseas | Comments Off

Heartbreaking Loss for Taranto

Friday, April 10th, 2009

Lost in the excitement of yesterday’s WNBA Draft was a wild finish to the EuroCup. Cras Basket Taranto traveled to Turkey with a 12-point aggregate leading entering yesterday’s second leg at Galatasaray. The home team controlled the game much of the way, with the result being that while the scoreboard showed a comfortable Galatasaray lead, in reality the series was tight.

Two free throws by Galatasaray’s Marina Kress made it 69-57 with 34 seconds left to play, meaning the two teams were tied in aggregate scoring. After the teams traded empty possessions with an Audret Sauret-Gillespie turnover and a Seimone Augustus miss, they headed to overtime. Galatasaray dominated the extra session, outscoring Taranto 13-4. The final aggregate margin was 137-128.

Suzy Batkovic was one of three Taranto players to score double-figures, finishing with 11 points on 5-of-15 shooting. Megan Mahoney led Taranto with 20 points, but Galatasaray’s duo of Sophia Young (27 points) and Augustus (23) was too much to overcome and Taranto will have to settle for second in EuroCup.

Posted in batkovic, overseas | Comments Off

Cash Talks Perfection on ESPN

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

As the Connecticut Huskies look to complete a perfect 39-0 season by beating Louisville in tonight’s NCAA title game, few people have a better idea of what they are facing than Storm forward Swin Cash. In 2001-02, Cash and Storm point guard Sue Bird were two of the four amazing seniors on the UConn team that went 39-0 before producing four of the first six picks in that year’s WNBA Draft, including No. 1 overall selection Bird.

Cash joined ESPN’s First Take this morning to discuss this year’s Connecticut squad and the question that, with a win tonight, we can begin debating – which undefeated UConn team is the best? The Huskies also went 35-0 in 1994-95, led by Rebecca Lobo. Naturally, Cash admitted she’s biased in picking her 2001-02 team, which featured four eventual WNBA All-Stars. This year’s group has made things interesting by winning all 38 games by double-digits. They’ll go for No. 39 on ESPN tonight at 5:30 p.m.

You can watch the entire segment with Cash on ESPN.com.

Posted in cash, in the media | Comments Off

Draft Week Begins; Championship Game Set

Monday, April 6th, 2009

We’re now less than 72 hours away from the 2009 WNBA Draft. Anticipation seems to build a little slower than with the NBA equivalent because attention is still focused on the Final Four. Last night’s action delivered one classic semifinal and one that was, um, not classic. UConn looks unstoppable en route to a perfect season that has yet to see the Huskies even be challenged. The last obstacle in their way will be Louisville, which already lost twice to UConn, including a lopsided defeat in the Big East Tournament title game.

Back then, the Cardinals looked nothing like the confident group that has rallied behind Angel McCoughtry and “brutally honest” Head Coach Jeff Walz to knock off a pair of No. 1 seeds, first Maryland and now Oklahoma. I picked Louisville to reach the Final Four, but I did not expect them to be able to contain Courtney Paris. I watched the first half of the game before missing the Cardinals’ second-half comeback until seeing the climactic final minute. When I tuned back in and saw the score with Louisville leading, I was stunned.

McCoughtry has taken glee in disproving doubters at every stage ofLouisville’s run, and there will be plenty of them going into tomorrow’s national championship game on ESPN (including me), so there will be no shortage of motivation in trying to do the impossible and knock off UConn.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to watch McCoughtry play, this is your last chance to do so before she’s taken in Thursday’s WNBA Draft, possibly with the top overall pick. Connecticut’s Renee Montgomery is also a potential top-five pick, while Louisville forward Candyce Bingham may go in the second or third round.

In other draft news, the WNBA announced last week the 15 players who have been invited to attend the draft in Secaucus. WNBA.com’s Brian Martin also posted his mock first round, which has the Storm taking Duke center Chante Black. Black is one of the five centers featured in today’s final position breakdown on storm.wnba.com.

Posted in draft, ncaa | Comments Off

Spartak Tops Again in Euroleague

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

The remarkable Euroleague run of Spartak Moscow Region continues. With an 85-70 triumph Sunday over host Halcon Avenida in the title game of the Euroleague Final Four, Spartak earned its third consecutive Euroleague Championship.

Playing against a raucous home crowd that helped Avenida defeat MKB Euroleasing Sopron in Friday’s semifinals, Spartak quieted the fans by taking control of the game in the second quarter and never letting go. Up one after one quarter, Spartak opened up a 12-point advantage by halftime and never allowed the hosts to get within double-digits in the second half, leading by as many as 21 points.

While Diana Taurasi was voted Final Four MVP after her second consecutive 30-plus-point effort, Sue Bird was equally as valuable for Spartak in the two wins in Salamanca. Bird had a double-double in the final, scoring 13 points, handing out 10 assists and grabbing six rebounds while going the full 40 minutes. Despite cold shooting, Lauren Jackson contributed 13 points and five rebounds.

Avenida, which features just two WNBA regulars (forward Le’Coe Willingham, who scored a team-high 25 points, and center Michelle Snow) simply could not match Spartak’s amazing array of talent.

For Bird, it’s a third consecutive Euroleague crown to go along with her dizzying array of titles (two NCAA Championships at UConn, two Olympic gold medals and, of course, the 2004 WNBA championship). Jackson wins her second straight Euroleague title, having joined Spartak just after the team won the 2007 Euroleague Championship.

Now, Spartak sets its sights on winning the Russian Superleague for a third straight time. Despite their Euroleague triumph, that is anything but a certainty. Next weekend, Spartak begins a semifinal series against talented CSKA Moscow, led by Becky Hammon. Should Spartak advance, the likely opponent in the Superleague Finals would be Cup of Russia champions UMMC Ekaterinburg, who challenged Spartak in Friday’s semifinal matchup before settling for third place in Euroleague and would have home court in the series.

Posted in bird, jackson, overseas | Comments Off

Spartak Back in Final Four Championship

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Spartak Moscow Region will play for its third straight Euroleague Championship on Sunday after defeating Russian rival UMMC Ekaterinburg in this morning’s semifinal matchup, 83-74. Diana Taurasi scored a game-high 33 points, but Spartak would not have won without timely scoring from Sue Bird. The Storm’s point guard finished with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, handing out four assists.

Spartak led by most of the way and threatened to blow things open in the third quarter, but behind a big effort from Agnieszka Bibrzycka (23 points on 8-of-16 shooting), Ekaterinburg managed to keep things close through the fourth quarter. They trailed by just one with seven minutes to play when Bird’s three-pointer kicked off a 12-2 run that effectively ended the game.

Taurasi was impossible to stop much of the game, hitting difficult shots and getting to the rim off the dribble. On the other side, the dribble penetration of Ekaterinburg guards Deanna Nolan and Cappie Pondexter challenged Spartak’s defense, but UMMC was hurt by the lack of a true point guard, settling too often for contested shots from the perimeter. Nolan and Pondexter both shot 3-for-11 from the field.

Spartak got scoring from just five players, but with four of them in double-figures (including 11 for Lauren Jackson, who knocked down a trio of three-pointers) that was enough.

The win was an important statement for Spartak, which lost to Ekaterinburg in the finals of the Russian Cup and lost to them in the Russian Superleague regular season, giving Ekaterinburg the top seed in the playoffs.

Spartak’s opponent in the final will be determined by today’s second semifinal, pitting Final Four host Halcon Avenida (Spain) against MKB Euroleasing Sopron (Hungary). The winner will face Spartak Sunday in the wee hours of the morning Seattle time.

The Euroleague Final Four is not the only overseas playoff competition involving Storm players. Yesterday was also the first game of the two-game aggregate EuroCup Finals pitting Suzy Batkovic’s Cras Baket Taranato squad against Turkish side Galatasaray. On the road, Galatasaray actually led 46-38 midway through the third quarter. From there on out, Taranto outscored Galatasaray 29-9 to win going away, 67-55.

Batkovic led Taranto with 15 points and nine rebounds, shooting 5-of-10 from the field and adding three blocks. Batkovic also helped her team stifle San Antonio All-Star Sophia Young, who was limited to nine points and six turnovers in 38 minutes.

The deciding second game of the aggregate series will be played next Thursday in Turkey. If Taranto wins or loses by fewer than 12 points, it will reign as EuroCup champions.

In Turkey, a hard-fought 78-69 loss to Fenerbahce eliminated Ted Kayseri Koleji from the TBBL Playoffs. While it did not translate into a win, Ashley Robinson continued to play aggressive basketball, scoring 19 points and grabbing six rebounds.