Ivory Latta Out of Turkey and Back in Israel

Ivory Latta has terminated her contract with the Turkish club Ceyhan. Apparently, this hit the Turkish news on Wednesday; I found out about it just now. Yesterday, she signed a contract with the Maccabi Rabat Hen team in Israel.

Latta was averaging 20.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. She was the second leading scorer in the Turkish league.

Why leave? Probably because Israeli club Maccabi Rabat Hen came calling. The basketball season in Israel is half over and there's some sort of cup match going on before the season resumes on January 22nd. Rabat Hen is 8-2 and in a four-way tie for first place in the Israeli league.

Latta coming to Rabat Hen will unite her with Tamara James, Matalya Belvin, and LaToya Pringle. Matalya Belvin graduated in 2007 from Langston University, an NAIA school. Tamara James last played in the WNBA with the Mystics in 2007. LaToya Pringle played for the Mercury this year.

All I can say is "best of luck to Ivory Latta in Israel!" What better place to be during the Christmas season?

TBBL 8/2008 - Ceyhan 78, Çankaya Üniversitesi 67

When you're among the bottom half of the league, you get few chances to be the favorite. Ceyhan (3-5) must have felt like a favorite when the Çankaya Üniversitesi (1-7) team came to visit. The outcome was no surprise - Ceyhan won by 11 points, 78-67 at home this Sunday.

Ahead 13-9 in the first quarter, Çankaya Üniversitesi went on a mini 5-0 run to stretch their lead to nine points and they had a 10-point lead with two minutes to go in the first quarter, which they carried to the end of the first with a 24-14 lead. But the second quarter started with a 7-0 run by Ceyhan to close the gap back to three and Çankaya Üniversitesi held a slim four point lead, 38-34 at haltime. The third quarter started with a 6-0 run by Ceyhan and Ceyhan finally had a 40-38 lead which they extended to 58-49 by the end of the third. Once Ceyhan took a 10-point lead in the fourth, they would be ahead by at least 10 for the rest of the game.

Ceyhan outscored Çankaya Üniversitesi by a factor of 47 percent to 36 percent. Both teams were evenly matched in rebounding and turnovers. However, Ceyhan would send Çankaya Üniversitesi to the free throw line 22 times, and the visitors would hit 18 shots, helping Çankaya Üniversitesi to stay in the game.

Michelle Campbell led all players for Ceyhan with 25 points and eight reboundds. Four other players would score in double figures, including Charel Allen with 12 points and Izabela Piekarska with 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

As for Ivory Latta, her claim to be the best scorer in the TBBL might be in jeopardy. She only scored four points in 17 minutes of play, but had five assists and three rebounds.

For Çankaya Üniversitesi, Bojana Vulic was the team's best player with 17 points and eight rebounds. Ashley Battle would also score 17 points and five rebounds for Çankaya Üniversitesi. Lindsey Bowen would contribute 10 points for the visitors. Battle played for the New York Liberty this year; Bowen played for the Liberty in 2007.

No pics from the TBBL website. Sorry.

TBBL 7/2008 - Fenerbahçe 97, Ceyhan 83

While we wait for a box score for the Bahçeşehir-Samsun game - I'm still waiting for two box scores from the French League; what's with these people? - Ceyhan (2-5) would send the TBBL's leading scorer, Ivory Latta, against league-leading Fenerbahçe (7-0). Visiting Ceyhan would find out that one scorer does not a team make, as Fenerbahçe won 97-83 to remain in first place in the TBBL.

The first half was a relatively close one, with Ceyhan remaining a basket or two away from the home club and the score ending 41-38 going into halftime. In the third quarter, with Fenerbahçe ahead 47-43, Fenerbahçe opened up an 11-point lead to 59-48 and closed the quarter 69-60.

Ceyhan scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to close to 69-64 but Fenerbahçe opened the lead up again to 73-64 with help from Nevriye Yilmaz. Esmeral Tunçluer had a good fourth quarter and was able to beat the Ceyhan defense, and Fenerbahçe ended up winning by 14 points.

Both teams shot very well - Fenerbahçe shot 50 percent and Ceyhan 48 percent. However, Fenerbahçe out-hustled Ceyhan in overall rebounds and Ceyhan turned the ball over 19 times. Futhermore, Fenerbahçe was perfection at the free throw line, going 19 for 19.

Esmeral Tunçluer of Fenerbahçe led all scores of both teams with 24 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Nevriye Yilmaz scored 16 points and six rebounds. Indiana Fever center Tammy Sutton-Brown picked up 15 points and five rebounds, and Houston Comets guard Matee Ajavon scored 14 points. Kristin Newlin, a graduate of Stanford, scored eight points.

For Ceyhan, Ivory Latta scored 21 points and six assists. Michelle Campbell would add 15 points. Gulcin Cantekin would score 12 points and Tiffani Johnson did not play - she's not even listed on Ceyhan's roster. I wonder what's up with that.

Pictures will come as soon as the Turks send them.

TBBL 6/2008 - Tarsus 64, Ceyhan 61

With the TBBL site wonky all morning, it's hard to access articles and I was lucky enough to get one of the boxscores and articles just now. Despite a great performance by Ivory Latta, Ceyhan (2-4) would fall to Tarsus (3-3) by a score of 64-61.

From the crappy Turkish translator on line, here's what I can make of the game. It was a pretty tight game all the way. Ceyhan fell behind 15-7 when Tarsus went on an 8-0 run, and for the rest of the game, Tarsus would have to fight to make sure Ceyhan didn't take the lead. Ceyhan managed to tie in the second quarter....and the third quarter...and the fourth quarter.

With the score tied 61-61, I suspect that Barbara Turner either a) made a 3-point bucket, or b) hit three free throws after being fouled while shooting. With 10 seconds left, Ceyhan put the ball in Ivory Latta's hands, but she missed the final shot.

It wasn't the sharpest of games from either team. Ceyhan shot 36 percent; Tarsus shot 34. Tarsus won the critical battle of rebounding, outrebounding Ceyhan 40 to 27 and picking up 13 offensive boards. Turnovers were fairly even. Both teams hit the same number of free throws.

In scoring, Ivory Latta led both teams with 21 points, four rebounds and six assists (she also had four fouls and five turnovers). Michelle Campbell and Hulya Özkan each had 11 points for Ceyhan. Campbell had eight rebounds and Özkan scored six. Tiffani Johnson would only score four points and three rebounds (she only played 15 minutes) and Charel Allen would be held scoreless in the ten minutes she played - she scored 27 in her last outing.

Barbara Turner led Tasrus with 13 points. Turner was a guard for the Connecticut Sun last year. Tatum Brown, a forward from Arizona who graduated in 2000, scored 11 points and 11 rebounds. Jessica Dickson, who seems to have replaced Nina Norman, scored four points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of play.

TBBL 5/2008 - Ceyhan 81, Beşiktaş 78

For Ivory Latta and Alison Bales, each of their Turkish teams would play an undefeated team in the Turkish League. Ceyhan (2-3) had only one win in four tries and was on the road but managed to defeat formerly undefeated Beşiktaş (4-1) by a score of 81-78 on their own home court.

The quarter by quarter score suggests a game that teeter-tottered back and forth. Ceyhan jumped out to a 23-15 lead after the first quarter, but by halftime, the visitors were only up by three points, 35-32. Beşiktaş poured it on in the third quarter 28-19 to take a 60-54 lead into the final quarter -they finished the quarter with a 12-2 run - but Ceyhan would outscore Beşiktaş by almost ten points in the final quarter for a comeback win.

Each team shot exactly 40 percent from the field. Beşiktaş had the rebounding advantage but they also turned the ball over more. This game would be decided on free throws, with Ceyhan granted an insane twenty-nine visits to the free throw line, hitting seventeen of them. You wouldn't think 59 percent free throw shooting helped the winning team win, but there you go.

Milica Dabovic led all Beşiktaş players with 22 points. Alexis Hornbuckle, a rookie guard with the Detroit Shock this year, scored 17 points, six rebounds and four assists. Shay Doron, who played for the New York Liberty in 2007, scored 15 points and nine rebounds and Laura Harper, a rookie forward for the Sacramento Monarchs, picked up eight points and eight rebounds.

Charel Allen would lead all players with 27 points and 12 rebounds for Ceyhan. Michelle Campbell scored another double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Ivory Latta added 19 points and four rebounds, but was 7 for 18 from the field and 3 for 5 from the line - it wasn't a great game for Ivory. Tiffani Johnson returned back to the lineup, but only scored two points in 10 minutes.

Pictures will probably be up on the TBBL website. However, the site was down for most of the morning, so we might have to wait.

Ivory Latta vs. Samsun

The only picture posted on the TBBL website that's either of Ivory Latta or Alison Bales has been posted from the Ceyhan-Samsun game.

It would have been nice to have a pic of Latta vs. Bales. Oh well.

TBBL 2008 - Samsun 76, Ceyhan 53

This isn't exactly Duke-North Carolina. However, with Ivory Latta's sprained ankle, it was feared that we'd have to wait until the second half of the season before we saw Ivory Latta and Alison Bales go head to head once again.

Not true! Ivory Latta's ankle must have recovered enough for her to start! Unfortunately, having the league's leading scorer didn't help Ceyhan (1-3) as they fell to Samsun (2-1) by a score of 76-53 at home.

Ceyhan started out the game under the gun and stayed there. They were down 21-9 after one quarter and were down by 20 at halftime, 43-23. Ceyhan tried to stage a mini-comeback in third quarter, but Samsun outscored Ceyhan by 11 points in the fourth quarter to put the cap on a 23-point victory.

Why did Ceyhan lose? They shot 25 percent from the field in the game. Pitiful. Samsun shot 51 percent, and beat Ceyhan in rebounding, 47 to 34 - but oddly enough, Ceyhan won the battle of the offensive boards, 13-10. The only thing that kept Ceyhan in the game at all was turnovers - Samsun dropped the ball 22 times compared to Ceyhan's more cautious 13 times.

The two leading scorers for Ceyhan - and the only two in double figures - were Charel Allen and Ivory Latta. Allen contributed 18 points and eight rebounds and Latta contributed 18 points and four rebounds. Latta's shooting? Maybe she should have stayed and nursed her ankle. It took 24 shots to get those 18 points. Michelle Campbell also added six points and 13 rebounds.

(Tiffani Johnson did not play for some reason. I wonder what the story is there?)

Samsun's victory was led by Erlana Larkins who had 16 points and 18 rebounds. Three other players scored in double figures, including Julie McBride with 15 points.

As for Alison Bales, she played 24 minutes, scoring only four points but pulling down 12 rebounds and contributing four blocked shots. (I wonder how many of Ivory's shots got blocked?)

You sort of have to depend on Samsun to provide photos. We'll see if someone took some pictures.

Left Ripped Skill = Foot

From dumping the text of this Turkish news article into a free online Turkish-English translator (you get what you pay for), I believe that Ivory Latta has a left foot injury.

Mystery solved.

Ivory Latta Suffers a Left Ripped Skill

From Yeni Adana Gazetesi, a publication from Turkey:

Other hand Ceyhan Belediyesyor Deputy Chief and Club Doctor Ercan Atalay and ivory Latta's left possessing a skill ripped it was determined that, as it is now Samsun Match risky play, that the Besiktas game to catch up an intensive treatment will apply. he said

This implies that

a) Latta injured her left something-or-other,
b) It's too risky to come back for the Ceyhan-Samsun game, forcing us to wait for the inevitable Ivory Latta-Alison Bales battle, and
c) Ivory might not come back until the Besitkas-Ceyhan game, which isn't until November 23rd. (Ceyhan has a bye week after the Ceyhan-Samsun game.)

Stay warm, Ivory, and don't strain your left ripped skill. come back soon.

TBBL 3/2008 - Galatsaray 70, Ceyhan 54

Ceyhan (1-2) fell short while on the road against Galatasaray (1-1), 70-54. The boxscore for the game is here.

So why is there no writeup? Because Ivory Latta did not play in this game for some reason. Why? We really don't know. There's no news in Google News Turkey, nothing in the Turkish blogsearch, nothing at all.

Hopefully, Ivory is okay. We'll just keep our ears to the ground.

Another Ivory Latta Pic

Another pic from the first TBBL game of Ceyhan against Mersin. Ivory Latta (12) is stooped over as Michelle Campbell (34) and Berrin Karabas (18) of Mersin look on.

Someone asked for the other Ivory Latta pic posted at the TBBL website from Game One. Generally, pics can be found at the TBBL website at http://www.tbl.org.tr/tbbl/index.asp.

Update: Pics of the Ceyhan-Panküp game are now at the TBBL website. I might post one but I won't post them all.

TBBL 2/2008 - Panküp 82, Ceyhan 80

When you're down 42-31 at halftime, you have one of two options - succumb to the inevitable, or, if you have an ounce of self-respect, fight. Home team Ceyhan (1-1) hoped to start out 2-0 this year in the TBBL, but they would lose to visiting Panküp by a score of 82-80.

The boxscore for the game is right here.

Since there's no good online Turkish-English translator (Google, where are you on this?), we'll have to look at the box score to decipher how the game went. Ceyhan was down 42-31 at halftime, but poured it on in the third quarter with 35 points to take a 66-58 lead after three quarters. Unfortunately for the home team, Panküp outshot Ceyhan 24-14 for the final two-point victory.

Panküp shot 46 percent to Ceyhan's 35 percent, but Ceyhan drilled more threes. Ceyhan had more offensive rebounds, but both teams were even in turnovers. Ceyhan was helped by going to the foul line 28 times, and hitting 23 of their freethrows shooting 82 percent at the line.

Ivory Latta led players on both teams with 31 points in 10 for 19 shooting. She hit four 3-point shots and seven of nine of her free throws, grabbing five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Michelle Campbell added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Tiffani Johnson scored six points and six rebounds, and Gulcin Cantekin scored 12 points and six rebounds for Ceyhan (but fouled out). Charel Allen added five points and six rebounds in just 14 minutes of total play.

For Panküp, current Seattle Storm forward (and former Atlanta Dream player) Camille Little led all players of Panküp with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Panküp needed its foreign aid players to get the victory. Jaclyn Johnson, a graduate of the University of Kansas in 2001, scored 15 points and 11 rebounds. Lisa Willis, a guard for the New York Liberty, scored 12 points and six rebounds, and Laurie Koehn, a guard for the Washington Mystics, added 12 more points to Panküp's tally.

All in all, 58 of Panküp's 82 points came from American players. For Ceyhan, it was 49 of 80 points.

Pictures will come when the TBBL provides them.

Beşiktaş-Samsun Gallery

There are about four more pictures of the Beşiktaş-Samsun game, some of which feature Alison Bales. These can be found on the TBBL website.

We have results from the Ceyhan-Panküp game. Ivory Latta scored 31 points but Ceyhan fell short as Panküp won its first game of the year 82-80. More on the game later.

More on the Ceyhan-Panküp game later.

TBBL Game One Pictures

Ivory Latta shoots over a Mersin defender...maybe Allie Quigley?


Alison Bales watches as Nesibe Uzun (#12) drives past a defender.

We finally have some pictures up from the Turkey Women's Basketball League. The full set is currently on the TBBL page of the combined Turkey Basketball League website.

I can't say how long these pictures will stay up. While you still can, look for your favorite players. Note: there is still one Alison Bales and one Ivory Latta pic that I haven't posted!

TBBL 1/2008 - Ceyhan 86, Mersin 80 (OT)

Ivory Latta, always with a smile.

Undoubtedly, Ceyhan expected a lot out of "Ivory Rochelle Latta" after her first full-time year in the WNBA...and Latta delivered big, scoring 29 points to lead Ceyhan (1-0) to its first victory of the year over Mersin (0-1).

The box score for the game is here. The following key will help you follow Turkish box scores.

SÜre - Minutes
S - Points
2 Sayı - 2 point shots
3 Sayı - 3 point shots
SA - free throws
Rebaund - Rebounds
H: offensive rebounds
S: defensive rebounds
T: total rebounds
AS: assists
Tç: steals
TK: turnovers
BL: blocked shots
F: fouls

The tally for two and three points shots is kept separately in Turkish boxscores. Ceyhan, on the road for their first game, outshot Mersin 45 percent to 39 percent - Latta's 52 percent shooting certainly helped Ceyhan. Both teams had 42 rebounds, making the game a true battle of the boards. However, Ceyhan would turn the ball over more times (23 vs. 17) and at the free throw line, Ceyhand would shoot a miserable 45 percent compared to the 77 percent of Mersin.

So how did Ceyhan win? They probably won from the perimeter. Ceyhan's three point shooting was 11 for 29, whereas Merins was 5 for 17. That's 18 extra points for Ceyhan entirely on the strength of their three point shooting, and that was the key to the game.

Ceyhan took a 35-33 lead into halftime, but fell behind 57-52 after three quarters. They came back to tie the game 76-76 and outshot the home team 10-4 in the overtime period.

Ivory Latta led all scorers with 29 points and had five rebounds and two assists. Michelle Campbell had a double-double for Ceyhan with 13 points and 10 rebounds. (I don't know which Michelle Campbell this is - the one who played for USC? the one who played for Rutgers?) Hulya Özkan added 14 points.

Charel Allen (Sacramento Monarchs) would only add eight points. Tiffani Johnson, the ex-Tennessee player and cousin of Ivory Latta only scored six points but had 13 rebounds.

For Mersin, Allie Quigley, formerly out of DePaul University, led all scorers with 19 points. Olympia Scott (Phoenix Mercury and WNBA player since 1998) had 9 points and 11 rebounds for Mersin. Sariye Gokce had 14 points, and Mistie Williams (Houston Comets) picked up only 3 points in nine minutes of play.

Pics will be added when they can be found.

P. S. Rebecca corrected me regarding Olympic Scott's active status. "i haz a post, but i broked it."

Liftoff in Turkey!

Finally, the Women's Basketball League of Turkey (TBBL) has posted their schedule...or at least enough pieces of it for me to put it together.

Ivory Latta's Ceyhan club will take on Mersin while Alison Bales's Samsun club - moving up from the second division into the premier league - will take on the dangerous Galatasaray club, which lost the league finals to Fenerbahce after taking the playoffs to a final fifth game.

The season starts October 18th. I believe that the WCBA (China) season also starts on the 18th, and hopefully we'll have some news about Jennifer Lacy in Beijing.

Ivory Latta in Turkey

The article is right here, in the original Turkish. The gist of it seems to be that Ivory Latta, Tiffani Johnson and Charel Allen have all arrived and have been examined by the good doctors at Ceyhan Belediyespor. I couldn't understand if they've been cleared to play, but they all seem happy in the photograph. (Well, maybe not Tiffani Johnson.)

Here's a "Did You Know?"...did you know that Tiffani Johnson and Ivory Latta are cousins? No kidding. Tiffani played for the Lady Vols at Tennessee, which makes one wonder what Tennessee would have been like with Johnson and Latta wearing orange. According to Pat Summitt, coach Sylvia Hatchell of North Carolina had Latta locked up so it was never to be.