The off-season is officially underway. In this week’s Bowman Beat, I’ll take a look at where the various members of the Atlanta Dream will be playing overseas between WNBA seasons. Granted, there are still some players like Shoni Schimmel and Angel McCoughtry whose final overseas destinations are unknown, but trust me, the women’s pro basketball universe won’t come to an end with the end of the WNBA finals.
Matee Ajavon will be playing this season in Poland for the Energa Torun team. The team is still waiting for her and they definitely need her as Energa Torun is sitting at 0-3 in the BLK (Basket Liga Kobiet). Accoring to GazetaPormoska.com, there are some issues with her documentation. Her American teammate will be Victoria Macaulay, a power/forward center who graduated from Temple in 2013. Energa Torun’s next game will not be until October 10 against Widzew.
Cierra Burdick: The Italian Serie A1 basketball season started on Saturday, October 3 and Burdick’s Napoli team got its first win of the season with a 71-60 road victory against Di Lupari. Burdick shot 2-for-6 and 1-for-2 from the free throw line for a total of seven points and had 10 rebounds. She’ll be waiting for future Napoli teammates Noelle Quinn (expected to arrive soon) and Natalie Achonwa who will head to Italy at the end of the WNBA Finals. In addition to playing in the Italian League, Burdick’s Napoli team will take part in the international Eurocup competition.
Highlights are below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0mVxx6Mfio
http://www.legabasketfemminile.it/e-un-esordio-sfortunato-per-il-fila-allopening-day-vince-napoli/
Sydney Carter: Carter will be playing for the TTT Riga team in Latvia, returning to a team where she played in the 2013-14 off-season. One of her new teammates will be Kristen Mann, a player you might remember from the 2008 Atlanta Dream. Latvian League play doesn’t start until October 17 but Carter is hard at work as Riga also plays in the EEWBL (Eastern European Women’s Basketball League). Currently, Riga is 3-0 in that league with Carter averaging 8.0 ppg/2.0 rpg. In addition to these two leagues, Riga will also play in the internatonal Eurocup competition.
Carla Cortijo’s team in Puerto Rico, Gigantes de Carolina, remains near the top of the BSNF (Balencesto Superior National de Femenino) League. On September 29, Cortijo scored a triple double (30 points/12 rebounds/12 assists) in an 81-68 win against Isabela that was close in the first half, but not in the second. However, Carolina suffered a 78-75 loss against Ponce on October 1 in a game where she only played four minutes. Currently, she is shooting 59.2 percent for the season.
Damiris Dantas heads back home to Brazil to play for Corinthians Americana. Her team just finished winning the Liga Sudamericana playoffs on September 30th where they beat Ecuadoran team 70-60 to take the championship. Dantas had 30 points and eight rebounds in the victory. The UTE team that Corinthians beat had two ex-Atlanta players: Nadia Gomes Colhado had 22 points/12 rebounds and Iziane Castro Marques had 18 points/eight rebounds in the loss.
Highlights are below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCkabRgDaXM
Reshanda Gray: Gray headed off to Italy to join her new Italian team, Battipaglia. Familia Schio, one of the premiere teams not just in Italy but in all of Europe, would give her a rude greeting with an 84-51 opening win. Head coach Massimo Rigo gave Gray the start, where she scored 11 points in the loss. Let’s hope she doesn’t get too homesick because it appears that not only is she the only American on the roster but she might be one of the oldest players on the team.
Highlights are below:
http://www.legabasketfemminile.it/con-coraggio-contro-il-famila-schio/
Tiffany Hayes: Hayes will play for Yakin Dogu in the Turkish Superleague. This will be the first season that Yakin Dogu plays at the highest level in Turkey, having won promotion from a lower league. Her teammates will be Ana Dabovic, Kelsey Bone and Alyssa Thomas. Yakin Dogu plays its first game against fellow newcomer Gelisterinler on October 17.
Aneika Henry: Henry will play for Turkish Superleague club Mersin. Her teammates will be Bria Hartley and former Atlanta player Inga Orekhova. Mersin starts the season on October 17 against Turkish powerhouse Abdullah Gul.
Sancho Lyttle: There are great European teams, and then there is UMMC Ekaterinburg which is a class by itself. Ekat recently announced that Lyttle would be joining a roster that would be an All-Star team in the WNBA that includes players such as Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner. In addition to Russian League play UMMC will take part in Euroleague, the most prestigious international tournament involving pro teams and it’s very clear that nothing short of a Euroleague championship will be satisfactory.
On Saturday, October 3, UMMC won its first Russian League game of the season, beating newcomer Kazanochka 96-45. Lyttle had 10 points and seven rebounds in her first game and only needed to play 18 minutes as UMMC outshot Kazanochka 64 percent to 28 percent. UMMC plays its first Euroleague game on October 14 against Bourges.
Angel McCoughtry : On October 1, McCoughtry was one of 11 players named to the US National Team roster for a European tour from October 2-October 9. Among McCoughtry’s teammates are luminaries such as Elena Delle Donne, Tina Charles and Candace Parker. The team will be coached by Geno Auriemma who is also the head coach at the University of Connecticut.
The first match of the USA team was against UNI Girona of Spain, the winners of the Spanish League the previous season., which Team USA won 84-52. McCoughtry contributed 17 points, but the player of the game was Parker who had a triple-double of 14 points/10 rebounds/12 assists.
One of the teams that Team USA will take on will be the Italian National team on October 7, and then on the 8 they play Napoli and Cierra Burdick. The day after that, the Americans and McCoughtry take on USK Praha, the winners of last season’s Euroleague title.