This week was the last round of Euroleague action before teams in Europe break so that players can head home for the holidays. There was plenty of drama, including yesterday’s announcement that Ros Casares Valencia has sacked coach Natalia Hejkova despite being tied atop Group A with an 8-2 record. Expectations are sky high in Valencia with a star-studded roster including Storm star Lauren Jackson, and the pressure on new head coach Roberto Iniguez will only grow when Ros Casares adds Maya Moore to the lineup after then new year.

Hejkova went out with a comfortable 84-70 home win over Lotos Gdynia. Jackson returned to the bench and scored seven points in 19 minutes. Jana Vesela, back in the starting lineup, scored 10 points and handed out five assists. Ann Wauters scored a game-high 21 points and point guard Laia Palau was terrific, scoring 14 points and handing out 13 assists. Shay Murphy added 17 points and seven boards. Aneika Henry, who was briefly in training camp with the Storm, had 14 points and seven rebounds for Lotos.

The week’s big game was in Ekaterinburg, where UMMC played host to Turkish power Galatasaray. Ekaterinburg seized control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring Galatasaray 22-11, then withstood a rally that got the lead down to just four in the closing minutes to win 85-80. Diana Taurasi scored 28 points for Galatasaray and Tina Charles had a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds, but UMMC countered with impressive depth. Six players scored at least seven points, led by 17 from Candace Parker, who also grabbed seven boards. Svetlana Abrosimova again sat out due to her Achilles injury. The win kept Ekaterinburg just a game back of Group A leaders Ros Casares and Galatasaray with four games left in group play.

Ewelina Kobryn had her best Euroleague outing of the season in a 77-64 road win over BLMA. Kobryn was nearly perfect from the field, making 10 of her 11 shot attempts en route to 25 points in 24 minutes as she dealt with foul trouble. Wisla Can-Pack Krakow, which trailed early, took the lead in the second quarter and pulled away down the stretch for the win. Milka Bjelica had 20 points and six assists and Erin Phillips scored 16 points for Wisla. BLMA was led by 18 points from Edwige Lawson.

Frisco Brno fell 82-63 in Italy to Cras Basket Taranto. Ashley Robinson was strong in the loss, scoring 12 points and collecting 11 rebounds. Romana Hedjova scored 17 and Jasmine Thomas had 16 for Frisco, but the rest of the team combined for just 18 points. Michelle Greco scored 15 for Taranto, which got a double-double (14 points, 13 boards) from Kia Vaughn.

Over in the EuroCup, group play is over and the eighth-finals will start after the break. Elizur Ramla and Tanisha Wright, after going a perfect 4-0 in Group H, are seeded third and will face Turkish club Kayseri Kaskispor in a two-game, aggregate series. The two legs will be played on Jan. 12 and Jan. 19.

After a month with Ros Casares Valencia, Lauren Jackson is starting to look like the three-time MVP. Jackson started at small forward during Saturday’s blowout win over Obenasa Lacturale and scored 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Jackson made all four of her three-point attempts and added five rebounds in 25 minutes. The rest of the Ros Casares frontcourt was dominant. Isabelle Yacoubou had 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, Ann Wauters scored 20 points and Sancho Lyttle contributed 14 points and seven rebounds. Jana Vesela handed out five assists and grabbed four rebounds.

Svetlana Abrosimova is still sidelined by an Achilles issue, but UMMC Ekaterinburg had no trouble with Nadezhda on Saturday, winning 85-58 at home. Maria Stepanova controlled the paint with 18 points and nine boards, Anete Jekabsone-Zogota scored 16 and Candace Parker chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds. Ekaterinburg did a phenomenal job of defending Nadezhda’s Katie Douglas, who finished with five points on 1-of-5 shooting.

Down under, Sydney went on the road to knock off the struggling Canberra Capitals 76-70 on Saturday. Belinda Snell had 16 points, eight assists and four rebounds for the Flames, who also got 24 points from Amy Denson and 20 from reserve Lauren King. Marianna Tolo scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Canberra, which rallied in vain from a 12-point halftime deficit.

Wisla Can-Pack Krakow earned a lopsided win over Lodz over the weekend, turning a 36-12 lead after one quarter into a 95-58 final. Ewelina Kobryn scored 19 points in 19 minutes before calling it a night. She also grabbed seven rebounds and handed out three assists. Ana Dabovic led Wisla with 23 points and Milka Bjelica scored 18.

Allie Quigley scored 15 points as Pecs 2010 topped Vasas-Basket 59-43. Quigley grabbed eight rebounds and knocked down both of her attempts from long distance in the win.

In the Czech Republic, Frisco Brno dominated Lokomotiva Karlovy Vary 97-53. Teresa Peckova scored 30 points for Brno and Jasmine Thomas had a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ashley Robinson had seven points, five rebounds and four assists.

Two of the top teams in all of Europe, both of them featuring Storm ties, fell victim to upsets during a wacky Wednesday in the Euroleague. The most stunning result came in Kaunas, Lithuania, where lowly VICI Aistes knocked off powerhouse Ros Casares Valencia by a 73-72 final. Rima Valentiene knocked down a three-pointer at the buzzer to end the thriller, answering Silvia Dominguez’s go-ahead score on the other end with seconds remaining. Down nine at the break, Valencia dominated the third quarter to take the lead, but never could take control of a taut final period.

With Sancho Lyttle out of the lineup, Lauren Jackson got her first start for Ros Casares and played well, finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds. Jana Vesela scored 14 points in her most prolific Euroleague outing and added four boards. Ann Wauters paced Valencia with 18 points and five boards. Tatsiana Likhtarovich had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists for VICI.

UMMC Ekaterinburg was unable to make up ground on Valencia by virtue of a 79-74 road loss against Bourges Basket. While Bourges has been much more competitive, the result was another upset. Bourges held Cappie Pondexter to 3-of-14 shooting and Ekaterinburg made just 42.4 percent as a team. Caty Joens scored 18 points for Bourges and Celine Dumerc added 17.

In Group C, Wisla Can-Pack Krakow solidified its lead with an impressive road victory, crushing Sparta&K Moscow Region 81-60. An impressive Wisla attack shot 50 percent from the field and committed just eight turnovers. Sparta&K managed just 36.8 percent shooting, including 3-of-12 from Seimone Augustus. Erin Phillips (25 points on 8-of-11 shooting) and Nicole Powell (23) powered Wisla, which got 10 points, six rebounds and four assists from Ewelina Kobryn.

Also on the road, Frisco Brno fell 78-58 to BLMA. Down nine going to the final period, Frisco Brno was outplayed down the stretch. Ashley Robinson scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds, blocking three shots. Tereza Peckova (15) and Jasmine Thomas (12 points, eight rebounds) reached double figures. Five BLMA players scored at least 10 points, with former Storm point guard Edwige Lawson-Wade coming up with 12 points, seven rebounds and five steals.

Play has resumed in the Israeli DI league after a strike by Israeli players postponed the start of the season. Local players were unhappy that the Israel Basketball Association relaxed the rules about import players, requiring each team to have one Israeli on the court at all times rather than two as in years past. The final deal allows teams to continue to use up to four imports this season, but will return to the former rule for the following three years.

On Thursday, Elizur Ramla got 13 points and eight rebounds from Tanisha Wright to win a makeup of Round 2 over Elizur Natanya, 88-76. Shay Doron scored a team-high 20 points for Ramla. Earlier today, Ramla defeated Maccabi Ramat Hen 86-80 to improve to 4-1 in league play, which is tied for second place. No stats were available at press time.

The competition for the Cup of Russia continued, and UMMC Ekaterinburg had no difficulty completing a two-game aggregate victory over Energia with a 111-49 victory. With few reserves available because of injury – Svetlana Abrosimova missed her second game with an injury to her right Achilles – Ekaterinburg’s stars racked up huge numbers. Sandrine Gruda had 33 points and 18 rebounds, while Yelena Levchenko pulled down 13 boards. Anete Jekabsone-Zogota scored 23 points and Candace Parker had 20.

In Spain, the showdown between powers Ros Casares Valencia and Perfumerias Avenida failed to meet expectations. Ros Casares dominated the defending Euroleague champs, taking an early 11-point lead and outscoring the hosts 31-7 in the fourth quarter to turn a close game into an 89-55 rout. Lauren Jackson had nine points and two boards for Valencia, which got performance from up and down the roster. Isabelle Yacoubou was splendid off the bench, going for 21 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes. Sancho Lyttle (11 points, 11 rebounds) also had a double-double and Ann Wauters (13 points, eight boards) and Shay Murphy (10 points, eight boards) completed Ros Casares’ dominance in the paint. The loss was the first of the season for Avenida, leaving Valencia alone atop the Liga Feminina at 8-0.

The Sydney Uni Flames headed out on the road for a tough WNBL trip over the weekend. On Friday, the Flames survived a thriller to beat the Bulleen Boomers 90-88.  Katie-Rae Ebzery made the winning shot with seven seconds left, as Bulleen’s Kerryn Herrington missed a late three. Sydney overcame 26 points and 14 rebounds from Liz Cambage, getting 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists from Belinda Snell. No such luck for the Flames on Sunday, as they fell 80-69 to the Rangers in Dandenong. With Snell suffering an off shooting night (3-of-16 from the field, though she added 10 rebounds to her 12 points), Sydney shot 34 percent as a team and had just 49 points through three quarters. At 8-3, the Flames have dropped to second in the WNBL behind the 9-2 Adelaide Link Lightning.

Wisla Can-Pack Krakow grabbed an 18-point lead by halftime and coasted to a 66-52 win over Gorzow. Ewelina Kobryn had 15 points and six boards for Wisla, which also got 17 points and six rebounds from Nicole Powell.

Frisco Brno had no trouble in a derby match against fellow Brno club Valosun, winning easily by a 102-69 final. With the outcome in no doubt, Ashley Robinson sat out to get some more rest for her foot. Teresa Peckova came up with 31 points and 14 rebounds and Alena Hanusova scored 21 points with eight boards.

Pecs 2010 suffered its second loss in Hungarian NB1 play on Sunday, falling 79-62 to Euroleague club UNIQA Euroleasing Sopron. Sopron’s defense and five fouls held Allie Quigley to nine points on 3-of-7 shooting. Sopron got 13 points, four steals and three rebounds from post Tijana Krivacevic, whose rights are held by the Storm.

Lastly, a link to pass on from the RebKell boards. Former Storm guard Alison Lacey, who retired from professional basketball after one season apiece in the WNBA and the WNBL, has now gotten into coaching. Lacey was introduced on Friday as the interim volunteer head coach at Marshalltown Community College in Iowa, not far from where she starred at Iowa State.

“We’ll see how it goes,” she told the Times Republican. “It’s a unique situation but I’m excited. I’m ready to do whatever I can to make this team successful. But it’s part me – it’s a lot of them.”