During today’s Game 2 action in the Euroleague Playoffs, teams that won on Tuesday had a chance to complete two-game sweeps and join host Galatasaray in the Final Eight from March 28-April 1 in Istanbul. All three teams with Storm players managed to finish off their foes and advance.

UMMC Ekaterinburg took care of business with little trouble in a 75-49 win over Good Angels Kosice. Ekaterinburg took a 14-point lead to the break and outscored Kosice 24-10 in the final period to win by 26 points. Sue Bird had another outstanding game for UMMC, scoring 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Bird had two assists, two steals and no turnovers in 28 minutes. Deanna Nolan led Ekaterinburg with 19 points. Erin Lawless and Danielle McCray scored 15 points apiece.

Wisla Can-Pack Krakow took a double-digit lead after one quarter and never looked back in beating ZVVZ USK Praha 74-60. Ewelina Kobryn led the attack, scoring 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting with eight rebounds. Four other players scored double figures, including 15 points and 12 boards for Milka Bjelica. The Wisla defense held DeLisha Milton-Jones to 2-of-10 shooting and Lindsay Whalen without an assist.

The easiest victory of the three actually belonged to Ros Casares Valencia, which extended its lead over CCC Polkowice to 23 before halftime and cruised to a 78-58 victory. Again, Ann Wauters dominated the paint, scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Sancho Lyttle also had a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. Maya Moore led Ros Casares with 20 points, while Lauren Jackson scored nine points. Jana Vesela grabbed five boards.

The Final Eight is a new format this year that will bring the eight quarterfinalists to Istanbul. They’ll be split into two groups of four and play a round robin format. Then, the first-place teams from each group will battle for the Euroleague title, the second-place teams for third place and so on and so forth. There are still two spots to be decided. Sparta&K Moscow Region-Nadezhda and Rivas Ecopolis-Bourges are headed to deciding Game 3s next Wednesday. One team that won’t be there is defending champion Halcon Avenida, which was upset by Beretta-Famila Schio in a sweep.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 24th, 2012 at 2:58 pm 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.