France beats Russia to win European Women’s Basketball Championship

France overcame a fourth-quarter run by basketball powerhouse Russia to win the European Women’s Basketball Championship, 57-53, in Riga, Latvia.

Center Sandrine Gruda had 12 points and seven rebounds for France. Emmeline Ndongue added 11 points.

French basketball legend Cathy Melain was scheduled to retire from competition this year, but put off leaving the game to compete in this year’s EuroBasket. She finished with two points and six rebounds.

France returned to the final in only their second appearance in the tournament since they won the gold medal in 2001 when they beat Russia, 73-68.

They qualified for the final after beating Belarus, 64-56, in Friday’s semifinals.

In the fourth quarter, Russia did not make it easy for France to maintain the lead they held for the previous three periods. France led at the half, 30-19.

In the fourth quarter, with less than two minutes to go, Russia came within four points but could not overcome the deficit.

Maria Stepanova led Russia with 13 points, six rebounds. Olga Arteshina had 12 points and Becky Hammon added nine.

Hammon, who was missing two games with her WNBA team, the San Antonio Silver Stars, to play for Russia, led all scorers in her squad’s semifinal match. She scored a game-high 28 points as they beat Spain, 77-61.

In the Bronze Medal Game,… Read more

Lauren Jackson visits old team in Australia, talks about happiness in resigning with Seattle

Lauren Jackson watched her former team in Australia, the Albury-Wodonga Lady Bandits, play Saturday night and reminisced in an interview with The Border Mail newspaper:

“Coming back here to the stadium brought back some of my earliest memories of watching my dad play for the Bandits and even training here whenever I come home.”

She also talked about her feelings and loyalty to the Seattle Storm:

“I want to finish my career there and that’s not something every athlete has a choice or a say in.”

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Month in Review – April 2009

Folks continue processing the loss heard around the (women’s basketball) world: Tennessee’s stunning defeat in the first round of the NCAA tournament at the hands of 12th seeded Ball State. Glaring irony: the worst season in Tennessee women’s basketball history is the one in which Summitt reaches 1,000 career wins. But at the end of the season, she reveals a take no prisoners approach for next year:

• Summitt to players on offseason conditioning “…if they’re not in the gym and investing, they chose the wrong program” http://bit.ly/WoI0e
• Video: Pat Summitt puts her players on notice “some of them may not make it”,”this is unacceptable” http://bit.ly/vi6VE (wait for ad to end)

South Florida beats Kansas in WNIT, record attendance of 16,113, the largest home crowd in KU women’s basketball history and largest single-game crowd in Big 12 women’s history: http://cli.gs/6RR69G Diana Taurasi leads Spartak Moscow to EuroLeague title (seattletimes.com) by @jaydaevans: http://bit.ly/f0Oc Oklahoma loses to Louisville and Courtney Paris promises to live up to her word of giving back scholarship:

• “…I was happy to see the Paris sisters lose because I am honestly sick of hearing about this 64K she has to pay back” Former UConn player Maria Conlon
• USA Today Photo Gallery: Louisville vs.

… Read more