Russia Superleague A 5/2009 - Nadezhda 60, Dynamo Kursk 56

Michelle Snow (#5, in blue) can only watch as Anastasia Veremeenko blocks another shot.

Despite the presence of Michelle Snow, Dynamo Kursk (2-3) is struggling in Russia Superleague A. Playing Nadezhda (4-1) on the road in front of a crowd of 1100, Dynamo Kursk lost their second straight game to fall into the middle of the pack of Russia Superleague A, losing 60-56 as Catherine Snytina of Nadezhda was responsible for one-half of her team's offense, scoring 30 points. Future superstar Anastasia Veremeenko scored 18 rebounds against the visitors.

A box score is here. A gallery of images from the game can be found here.

Looking at the quarter-by-quarter score, Dynamo Kursk got off to a poor start, falling behind 17-8 in the first quarter. By halftime, the score was 28-19. Clearly, this was not going to be a high-scoring game. In the third quarter, Dynamo Kursk managed to catch up and retake the lead, leading 40-38 with one quarter to go. Nadezhda, however, scored 22 points in the final ten minutes and took their fourth regular-season win of the year.

We'll take a look at the Four Factors of the game:

Field goal percentage: Nadezhda 35 percent, Dynamo Kursk 34 percent. It was a poor-shooting game from both sides, and the key to Nadezhda's victory must lie elsewhere.
Turnovers: Nadezhda 15, Dynamo Kursk 18. Slight edge to Nadezhda.
Offensive rebound percentage: Nadezhda 36 percent, Dynamo Kursk 33 percent. Another slight edge by Nadezhda.
Free throws: Nadezhda 9-for-11, Dynamo Kursk 6-for-8.

It seems that Nadezhda played marginally better than Dynamo Kursk at all levels, and that Catherine Snytina's performance pushed Nadezhda over the top - she played for almost 38 minutes of the game.

Let's look at some of the game performances:

Nadezhda

Catherine Syntina: 30 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals. She was 5-for-10 from close up - and 6-for-10 from 3-point range. A great game.
Anastasia Veremeenko: 14 points and 18 rebounds from Veremeenko. Five blocked shots. Veremeenko is a Belarussian center that is only 21 years old and those in Euroball have been singing her praises for years.
Oksana Zakalyuzhnaya: 9 points, 5 rebounds.

Dynamo Kursk

Michelle Snow: 17 points, 8 rebounds. 5 turnovers. Snow is the offense for Dynamo Kursk.
Svetlana Makismenko: 14 points, 4 rebounds.
Jillian Robbins: Zero points. Robbins only played for eight minutes.