Superleague A Russia 11/2008 - Nadezhda Orenburg 87, Spartak-St. Petersburg 66

There are two opinions about the Superleague A Russia. The first is that it's as good as the WNBA. The second is that it's better than the WNBA. Given that fact, Nadezhda Orenburg (5-6) was looking forward to playing a team that wasn't stocked with current and potential WNBA superstars. Furthermore, Betty Lennox and Shameka Christon finally got their travel papers in order. All of that added up to a 87-66 win over home team Spartak-St. Petersburg (1-10) in front of a crowd of 750 spectators.

The boxscore is here.

St. Petersburg managed to keep up with Nadezhda for one quarter, and actaully led 18-17. But in the second quarter, St. Petersburg was held to just eight points as Nadezhda took a 43-26 lead. St. Petersburg came out fast and scored 27 points in the third quarter, closing to within 63-53. The home team, however, couldn't keep up with Nadezhda and St. Petersburgh flattened out in the fourth quarter, scoring just 13 points.

Nadezhda must have been looking forward to this game, as they shot 54 percent from the field compared to St. Petersburg's 36 percent. It appears that St. Petersburg beat Nadezhda in offensive rebounding by a score of 15-7, if "CHSCH" stands for offenseive rebounding. At the free throw line, Nadhezhda was dominant, scoring 14 of 16 shots.

Most of the work of St. Petersburgh came from the "four Olgas", as Olga Speranskaya (16), Olga Yakovleva (15), and Olga Firsova (11) all scored in double figues. Olga Gritsaeva would score 9 rebounds, matched only by Olga Yakovleva.

Betty Lennox got back to work in earning her money, scoring 30 points on 12 for 20 shooting, with six defensive rebounds. Tamane Zane would score 17 points and Shameka Christon added 13 points. Anastasia Veremeenko would add seven points and 12 rebounds for the eventual winners.

Superleague A Russia 10/2008: Ekaterinburg 82, Nadezhda Orenburg 52

Ekaterinburg (8-2) had no problem defeating Nadezhda Orenburg (4-6) by a score of 82-52 in front of an announced crowd of 3800 spectators. Ekaterinburg led 21-7 after the first quarter and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way.

Why was the win so easy? It was easy because neither Betty Lennox nor Shameka Christon played. Both had trouble getting their documentation in order on the way back to Nadezhda and didn't make it to the game in time. Christon is the leading scorer in the Superleague A Russia and we all know how good Bad Azz Betty is. With those two players missing, it's going to be tough to take on players like Deanna Nolan and Cappie Pondexter.

Superleague A Russia 9/2008 - Nadezhda Orenburg 98, Slavyanka 46

God, I have to tell you, I'm exhausted from all of the Christmas hullaboo. Everyone looks forward to the holidays, and some small part of that is looking forward to the holidays being over. For Nadezhda Orenburg (4-5), they wanted a nice easy game before the Christmas break and they got it in visiting Slavyanka (0-9), which was crushed by Nadezhda by a score of 98-46 in front of 500 Slavyanka spectators who undoubtedly felt like they've gotten coal in their Christmas stocking.

Here are two translations of the boxscore. One translation comes from basket.ru, and the other comes from eurobasket.com.

Believe it or not, for the first ten minutes, Slavyanka actually put up a fight, and played Nadezhda to a tie after the first quarter, 18-18. But the second quarter ended up 31-10 in favor of Nadezhda, and the home team was held to eight points in the third quarter. Egad.

Only one stat is needed to describe the game:

Nadezhda: 51 percent shooting
Slavyanka: 26 percent shooting

There's really no point in discussing the game beyond that.

Betty Lennox had a game worthy of the Russian Superleague. She scored 38 points and had 10 rebounds with four assists. If she had scored eight more points, she'd have matched Slavyanka's entire total for the game.

B-Money, however, gave out some Christmas presents - she actually let other players on her team score. Shameka Christon scored 19 points and five assists, and Zane Tamane scored 13 poitns for the winners.

Slavyanka's team of Russian nationals only had two players score in double digits. Yuliya Kiseleva scored 10 points with nine rebounds, and Irina Romanova scored 12 points and four rebounds.

Merry Christmas, B-Money!

Euroleague 10/2008 - Beşiktaş 74, Nadezhda Orenburg 72

Shay Doron, resting on the job.

With both teams at 2-7, and both teams facing a last place finish in Euroleague Group A, Nadezhda would at least get the advantage of playing on its home court. Unfortunately, that advantage wasn't enough as visiting Beşiktaş won 76-72 over Nadezhda in a very tight game.

The final boxscore is here. The game report is here.

The game report basically tells the whole story, so I'll summarize. It was a game where the lead changed hands on several occasions, and Nadezhda led 72-68 with 1:57 to go. However, Milica Dabovic of Beşiktaş hit back-to-back 3-pointers and put Beşiktaş on top 74-72.

Anastasiya Veremeenko missed a jump shot to tie the game with 37 seconds left. Nadezhda had to foul someone to get the ball back, and Veremeenko would make the foul in sending Shay Doron to the line, who hit two free throws with 17 seconds left to put Beşiktaş up 76-72. Betty Lennox would try a three-pointer with 8 seconds left, but the shot missed and Nadezhda was essentially out of chances.

Beşiktaş shot 38 percent from the field, no better than Nadezhda's 37 percent. Beşiktaş would pick up 14 offensive rebounds to outmuscle Nadezhda, but Nadezhda would get sent to the free throw line 26 times and hit 20 shots.

Zana Tamane of Nadezhda had 19 points and 10 rebound for a double-double for Nadezhda. Betty Lennox would score 23 points and seven rebounds for the home squad. The only other Nadezhda player to score in double figures was Anastasiya Veremeenko with 11 points. Shamika Christon would only score six points and three rebounds in 27 minutes of play.

As for visiting Beşiktaş, Shay Doron scored 23 points and eight rebounds. Doron last played for the New York Liberty in 2007. Five players scored in double-digits for Beşiktaş, including Laura Harper with an astonishing double double of 19 points and 18 rebounds. Harper was a forward for the Sacramento Monarchs this year. Alexis Hornbuckle, who played for the Detroit Shock this year, would not take the floor for Beşiktaş.

Pictures can be found at the fibaeurope.com site and will be provided later.

Euroleague 9/2008 - Pécs 88, Nadezhda 70

Szilvia Török takes on the job of guarding B-Money.

Nadezhda (2-7) would travel to Hungary to keep their faint Euroleague hopes alive. They needed a win against Pécs (5-4), but it was not to be - Pécs beat Nadezhda 88-70 to mathematically eliminate Nadezhda from second round competition. Nadezhda will play Beşiktaş next week in Russia - both 2-7 teams will be playing to avoid last place.

The boxscore is here. A brief game report is here.

As the writeup said, Pécs would take a 6-0 lead and lead the entire game. The score was 54-35 at halftime, and the closest Nadezhda would get in the second half would be closing the gap to 10 points in the third quarter.

Pécs hit 53 percent of their shots compared to Nadezhda's 47 percent. Nadezhda suffered on the boards both offensively and defensively: the total rebounding gap was 38-25. Turnovers and free throws were about even.

The top performer - at least according to Euroleague - was Kelly Mazzante of Pécs, who scored 21 points and had five rebounds and three assists. Mazzante is a guard for the Phoenix Mercury. Anna Vadja would score 26 points and 10 rebounds, a double double for Pécs. Brooke Queenan scored seven points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of play. Queenan saw limited time in 2008 as a forward for the Chicago Sky.

Dalma Ivanyi of Pécs score eight points and 14 assists. It probably doesn't set a record, but it is rather amazing.

For Nadezhda, Betty Lennox was the leading scorer, scoring 23 points - but needing 29 shots to do it. Betty went 0-for-8 in 3-point shooting. Anastasiya Veremeenko scored 10 points and four assists, one of four Nadezhda players to score in double figures.

Shameka Christon did not play for Nadezhda. According to the orenbasket.ru website, Christon had an injury but there are no other details. In other news, there's a small gallery at the fibaeurope.com site, and you can find it by following the boxscore link.

They Love Betty Lennox

From the Nadezhda Orenburg website, I learned that Betty Lennox celebrated her birthday on December 4th. She is 32 years old.

What was odd is that I didn't learn this before. What's really odd is that this is my wife's birthday. So Happy (Belated) Birthday, from the Atlanta Dream Blog.

A Nadezhda rooter wrote a birthday poem for Betty Lennox - in English. The poem:

"When we heard about your coming,
Each of us was surprised by this new.
Lennox Betty – the name is so charming!
Outstanding ball-player – it’s true!
Very fast, with magnificent dribbling,
Every game is your wonderful show!
You are great! Your magic is really
One of greatest that ever we saw…
Up to stars, and higher, and higher…
Bring the part of your magic to us.
Every time you, like magical fire
Throwing, passing – and we are admiring –
Therefore, we will say like a choir:
You are best that was happened with us!..."

This is a wonderful poem. "digger", you've shown us in America that you are a true fan. Thank you.

Superleague A Russia 8/2008 - Ekaterinburg 83, Nadezhda Orenburg 76

Sometimes you get a visitor that you don't want. In this case, the visitor was Ekaterinburg (6-1), a virtual All-Star team, a major player in Euroleague and a team with a lot of players familiar to WNBA watchers. Having Betty Lennox and Shameka Christon might help you, but not this time, as Nadezhda Orenburg (3-5) loses to Ekaterinburg 86-73 in front of a crowd of 2000 spectators.

The translated boxscore is here.

The quarter-by-quarter score indicates a game with a lot of shifts in momentum. Nadezhda Orenburg led by one at the end of the first quarter, 22-21, but Ekaterinburg would score 30 points in the second quarter and take a 51-39 lead into halftime. They'd extend the lead in the third quarter and fend off a rally by Nadezhda Orenburg in the fourth quarter where Ekaterinburg was held to thirteen points.

Nadezhda Orenburg shot 47 percent from the field, but Ekaterinburg shot 51 percent. Both teams had an even number of rebounds, and Nadezhda Orenburg had 16 total turnovers. Ekaterinburg got 18 visits to the free throw line, and hit 14 of them.

For Nadezhda Orenburg, Betty Lennox led all players with 24 points, and six rebounds (she also had four turnovers). Shameka Christon also scored 14 points and Olga Ovcharenko scored 14 points.

Ashja Jones led Ekaterinburg with 18 points and seven rebounds. Jones is a forward for the Connecticut Sun. Deanna Nolan, a guard for the Detroit Shock, scored 16 points and eight rebounds.

But these aren't the only (somewhat) familiar names playing for Ekaterinburg. Yelena Leuchenka - remember that name, Dream fans? - scored six points. Maria Stepanova, who last played for Phoenix in 2005, scored six points. Sandrine Gruda, a center for the Connecticut Sun, scored 15 points and nine rebounds, and Svetlana Abrosimova, who played with the Sun after the Olympic break, scored five points. Elena Baranova, an original WNBA player who last played with the New York Liberty, scored zero points and two rebounds in seven minutes of play.

I'm surprised there's virtually no coverage - let alone pictures - from this game in the Russian media. Maybe tomorrow.

Euroleague 8/2008 - Nadezhda Orenburg 65, Bourges 61

Olga Ovcharenko goes for two.

B-Money might be ringing up cash in Russia, but Nadehzda Orenburg (2-6) is getting value for their cash - they win another game in Euroleague, dealing French League power Bourges (5-3) a 65-61 defeat in front of a home crowd of 2500 Nadezhda fans.

The win gives Nadezhda Orenburg an outside chance of winning their next two games and finishing 4-6 and in fourth place in Group A. Fourth place in Group A would be good enough to go on to the next round of Euroleague.

The boxscore is here. A writeup which links to a mini-galler is here. (Sorry, no Betty Lennox pics. Must be a French photographer.)

It certainly wasn't a good first half as Nadezhda Orenburg were down 38-23 and looking at their seventh defeat. In the third quarter, they held Bourges to just 11 points and temporarily took the lead, down by two 49-47 at the end of the third. With 4:19 left in the fourth, Nadehzda Orenburg took the lead again when Olga Ovcharenko hit a jump shot. Bourges came back to tie, but Anastasiya Veremeenko scored two points with 2:57 left and Nadehzda Orenburg never lost the lead again.

Both teams shot at the same percentage - 39 for Nadezhda Orenburg, 40 for Bourges. Bourges led in offensive rebounding, Nadezhda scored fewer turnovers. The key to the game was free throws - Nadezhda Orenburg was sent to the line 18 times and hit 16 of them.

Anastasiya Veremeenko scored 22 points and four rebounds for Nadezhda Orenburg. Betty Lennox had an okay game - 17 points on 18 shots, and nine total rebounds - but six turnovers. Shameka Christon only scored four points - all in the fourth quarter.

Endene Miyem scored 25 points and seven rebounds for Bourges, but she was the only player for Bourges to score in double figures. Celine Dumerc scored seven points and six rebounds for the visitors.