International action is heating up beyond just the Euroleague. That includes the EuroCup, which has already reached the semifinal round. Yesterday, Elizur Ramla took a first step toward the finals by defeating Sony Athinaikos 74-59 at home in the first leg of the two-game, aggregate series. Le’coe Willingham powered Ramla with 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting, five rebounds and five steals. Tanisha Wright finished with 10 points, six assists and three steals and three other Ramla players scored double-figures. Athinaikos’ Ruth Riley struggled with foul trouble, putting up 12 points and five rebounds in 19 minutes.

Ramla needs to win or lose by fewer than 15 points in next Thursday’s return leg to win the series and face either Arras or Chevakata, who are separated by just one point in the other semi.

Down Under, the WNBL began its postseason this week. The Logan BDS Thunder knocked the Dandenong Jayco Rangers out of the running with an 83-73 win in Wednesday’s Elimination Final. As the fourth seed, Dandenong hosted the game, but hot shooting by Olaf Lange’s charges was too much. The Thunder shot 47.7 percent from the field and knocked down 10 three-pointers, including six from Sarah Graham, who scored 20 points. Renae Camino had 21 for Logan. The duo got more support than the Rangers’ high scorers, Abby Bishop (22 points, seven rebounds) and Kathleen MacLeod (24 points, seven assists).

The Thunder advances to play the Bendigo Bank Spirit in Sunday’s Minor Semifinal. Saturday’s Major Semifinal pits the Canberra TransAct Capitals against the Bulleen Global Metals Boomers. The winner of that game will host the Grand Final. The loser still has a chance to reach the Grand Final by beating the winner of the Minor Semifinal.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 11:18 am and is filed under overseas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.