Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Friday, April 11, 2008

Jonesing for some basketball? Check out the EuroLeague Final Four Live and Free. Rickyy has done the all the homework on this...

To watch go to http://www.fibaeurope.com/ and click on the 'Watch Basketball Games Online' box in the top right corner. There'll be a direct Windows Media Player link as well -- and, since this post is late, check the site for archived games. (And don't read the bottom of the post: Spoiler Alert!)

UMMC: Bibrzycka, Nolan, Gruda, Taylor, Ashja Jones, Leuchanka, Harrower, Aubert

Spartak: LJ, Taurasi, Bird, Tina Thompson, Izi, Schegoleva, Miller, Mazzante

Brno: Whitmore, Maiga-Ba, and a bunch of Czech and Slovak players you've probably never heard of (most significantly Viteckova and Zirkova)

Bourges: Snell, and a load of players you've probably never heard of, most notably Kireta, Miyem,Dumerc, Ndongue and Petrovic

I'll let Richyyy lay out the dates and times for you:

FibaEurope is streaming the EuroLeague Final Four live from their website. This is the top tournament in European Women's club basketball. The semi-finals are tomorrow (Friday), and the final and third-place playoff are Sunday.

First semi-final is UMMC Ekaterinburg vs. Spartak Moscow, and tip-off is 3pm local time in Brno, Czech Republic. As far as I can work out, that's 2pm British Summer Time (so local time for me), which is 9am EST in the US tomorrow morning. The second semi-final is Gambrinus Brno vs. Bourges, starting three hours later (so 6pm local time in Brno, noon EST).

I'm happy to be corrected about timings if someone else is more sure, but I'm pretty sure the above differences are right. The times are the same on Sunday - 3pm and 6pm local (9am and noon EST), third place playoff followed by the final.

SPOILER ALERT! (but a reason to watch the archived game):

Spartak wins. Box Score (thanks mb1):

For Spartak:
LJ: 35pts, 12 rbs
TT: 24 pts, 3 rbs, 1 assist
Bird: 4 pts, 8rbs, 4 assists, 5 to
DT: 5 pts, 1rb, 3 assists

For Ekaterinburg:
Leuchanka: 15 pts, 7 rbs, 2 assists
P Taylor: 8pts, 4 rbs, 2 assists
Harrower: 9 pts, 4rbs, 2 assists
Bibrzycka: 8 pts, 7 rbs, 1 assist
A. Jones: 9 pts, 4rbs, 1 assist
Gruda: 8 pts, 1rb