by James Bowman, AtlantaDream.net
We’re less than a couple of weeks from the start of training camp. Most members of the Atlanta Dream are either in the United States or about to show up. So how did Atlanta Dream veterans fare here and abroad?
Matee Ajavon – Maranhao (Brazil): Ajavon’s squad beat Recife 2-1 in the quartefinals but lost 2-0 to eventual Brazil women’s league champion Americana in the semifinals. She finished 3rd in the league in free-throw percentage (85.8 percent), 7th in assists (2.91/game), and 8th in steals (2.0/game), finshing the season with 14.3 points per game/4.7 rebounds per game.
Ajavon played alongside a player whose name might be familiar to Dream fans – Iziane Castro Marques.
Nadia Colhado – Uninassau (Brazil): Colhado and her teammates on Uninassau made it all the way to the Brazil women’s league finals, taking the best-of-three series to a deciding third game – a game that they lost by two points, 79-77. She finished 5th in the league in blocks (0.76/game). Altogether, Colhado finshed the year with 9.5 points per game/6.6 rebounds per game for her team.
Erika de Souza – Uninassau (Brazil): As for Erika de Souza, she finished in the top in a lot of categories – 2nd in 2-point shooting (58.4 percent), 10th in points per game (14.4), 3rd in rebounds (9.1/game) and 1st in blocks (1.29/game). She had 23 points and 18 rebounds in that last game of the season, but it wasn’t enough to win Uninassau a championship.
Céline Dumerc – Tango Bourges Basket (France): Bourges finished the French women’s league season with a 25-1 record and marched right to the LFB championship, beating Landes 2-1 in the semifinals and Villeneuve 2-1 in the finals with a two point victory in the final game. Dumerc would finish that final game with 11 points and a key 3-pointer late in the game.
Dumerc was 3rd in the league in assists (4.5/game) and 6th in steals (1.8/game). She finished the French league season with 8.7 points per game.
In Euroleague, Tango Bourges Basket finished with a 9-5 record in Group B, good enough to qualify for the playoffs. However, they lost 2-1 to Russian team Dynamo Kursk in the opening round. Her stats were better in international play – she finished with 9.4 ppoints per game, ranking 8th in assists with 3.6/game and 10th in 3-point percentage with 38.9 percent.
Tiffany Hayes – Uninassau (Brazil): Remember those 23 points that Erika de Souza scored in Game 3 of the Finals that Uninassau lost by two points? Tiffany Hayes scored 22 points alongside Erika in that same game. Hayes led the league in 2-point shooting (66.7 percent) and 3-point shooting (45 percent), was 7th in free throw shooting (80.2 percent), 3rd in points (17.6/game).
Aneika Henry – Guangdong Songshan Lake (China): The Chinese league has a complex multi-stage season, and Guangdong finished well enough to end up in the quarterfinals before being swept 2-0 by finalist Beijing. According to Asia-Basket.com, Henry finished with 20.0 points per game/11.8 rebounds per game, shooting 63.4 percent from the field. From the Asia-Basket.com statistics, that was good enough for 7th in the league in points per game.
Roneeka Hodges – Winnus (South Korea): Hodges’s South Korea league team finished 6-29, in last place in a six-team league. She scored 10.5 points per game/4.31 rebounds per game over 35 games.
Sequoia Holmes – GD Inter-Clube de Luanda (Angola): Holmes’s club finished the Africa Champions Cup competition with a 7-9 record and beating fellow club 1 De Agosto in the title match. Holmes had 13 poitns in the final game of the year. Holmes had 14.4 points per game/4.6 rebounds per game, finishing second in overall scoring for Inter-Clube behind Italee Lucas.
GD Inter-Clube de Luanda team page
Ify Ibekwe – Girona (Spain): Ibekwe’s Girona squa finished in second place in the regular season with a 23-3 record and swept its way through the semifinals against Conquero 2-0 and then in the finals by stunning Perfumieras 2-0 for Girona’s very first Spanish league championship!
Eurobasket.com awarded Ibekwe a basketful of awards: Finals MVP, Player of the Year, Forward of the Year, Import Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. She averaged 16.4 points per game/10.1 rebounds per game and finished the league 3rd in points per game and rebounds per game as well as 4th in steals with 2.36/game.
Sancho Lyttle – Galatasaray (Turkey): Sancho Lyttle’s Galatasaray team finished 23-3, first in the regular season, then swept through the next seven playoff games including a 2-0 lead over Abdullah Gul in the finals before losing its first game in the Turkish women’s league championship. Galatasaray still leads the finals 2-1 and needs to win one of the next two games to take the crown. Lyttle finished the league regular season 5th in rebounding (9.5/game), 4th in steals (2.17/game) and scored 13.2 points per game.
In Euroleague, Galatasaray finished 5-7 in Group A, good enough to make the quarterfinals where they lost 2-1 to Turkish rival Fenerbahce. Lyttle finished 2nd in Euroleague in Offensive Rebounds (3.2/game), 7th in Total Rebounds (9.1/game), 2nd in steals (3.1/game) and averaged 11.0 points per game.
Angel McCoughtry – Fenerbahce (Turkey): McCoughtry played for Fenerbahce until she left the club in February. In domestic league play, she played 12 games and averaged 19.2 points per game. In Euroleague play, she played 12 games for a Fenerbahce club that would finish 11-3 in Group B and averaged 15.3 points per game/6.1 rebounds per game.
Amanda Thompson – ASA Jerusalem (Israel): Amanda Thompson’s ASA Jerusalem team finished in 8th place at 8-13. Thompson – who hasn’t played since January 21st – averaged 12.7 points per game and 12.5 rebounds per game over 13 games.