Overseas, there are numerous things to report this week.  One player’s team had a grand total of one assist in a domestic league loss.  Another player was held out of a game due to the flu.

But before that, I want to post an update on the future of the Atlanta Dream roster and the contract status of each of the individual players.  Most of this information comes from the wnba.com website and the rest is surmised.  For those of you trying to figure out what the roster will be next year, this information might be helpful.

Unrestricted free agents:  The player is free to sign with any team.

Matee Ajavon

Sydney Carter

Carla Cortijo

DeLisha Milton-Jones

Restricted free agent:  The player can receive offers from other teams, but the Dream has the right to match those offers to retain their player.

Tiffany Hayes

Aneika Henry

Contracted:  These players are currently under contract with Atlanta.

Roneeka Hodges

Sancho Lyttle

Angel McCoughtry

Reserved:  The player is out of contract but hasn’t been in the league long enough to earn free agency.  She can only negotiate with the team that holds her rights.

Cierra Burdick

Initial:  These players are not yet eligible for free agency.

Damiris Dantas

Reshanda Gray

Shoni Schimmel

And now, let’s look at the results of this week’s overseas games!

 

Matee Ajavon

(Energa Torun, Poland)

On Saturday, January 23, Energa Torun had a shot at moving to .500 on the season but lost by three points to visiting Sleza Wroclaw 75-72 to fall to 7-9 in the regular season.  The day before Torun added Renee Taylor (Miami 2007) to the roster but despite her eight assists she shot 1-for-9 from the floor.  Wroclaw was up by one going into the fourth quarter in a close game. Chay Shegog hit a bucket with 41 seconds for Wroclaw, but Matee Ajavon’s attempt at a two-pointer with 21 seconds left failed to fall.

Energa Torun:  Victoria Maucalay 23/9 reb, Ajavon 14, Charity Szczechowiak 11, Renee Taylor 9/8 ast (1-for-9 shooting).

Sleza Wroclaw:  Magdalena Leciejewska 15, Marissa Kastanek 15, Sharnee Zoll-Norman 10/12 reb.

Box score Energa Torun/Sleza Wroclaw:
http://basketligakobiet.pl/mecz/35092/energa-torun—sleza-wroclaw.html

Image gallery Energa Torun/Sleza Wroclaw:
http://basketligakobiet.pl/zdjecia/f/794/energa-torun—sleza-wroclaw.html

Complete game Energa Torun/Sleza Wroclaw:

 

Cierra Burdick

(Napoli, Italy)

On Sunday the 24^th Burdick’s Napoli team lost to visiting Parma 67-60, moving both teams along with Umbertide in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Italian league at 7-9.  The home squad led 48-44 after thirty minutes when Parma overtook them in the first half of the fourth quarter.  Napoli managed to close to 55-53 with five minutes left and Noelle Quinn hit a triple that put Napoli briefly ahead 56-55.  Laura Spreafico would then score the next five points for Parma and basically put the game away.

Napoli:  Gintare Petronyte 17, Noelle Quinn 16/7 reb, Burdick 3/13 reb, 1-for-6 shooting.

Parma:  Christine Clark (Harvard 2014) 19, Laura Spreafico 15, Renata Brezinova 14/7 reb, Uju Ugoka 12/16 reb.

Box score Napoli/Parma:
http://lbf-web.dataproject-stats.com/Tabellino.asp?IdGara=16010

 

Sydney Carter

(TTT Riga, Latvia)

The teams that finished first through sixth in the Latvian League in the first part of the regular season move on to the “second stage” of the year playing only against each other.  TTT Riga beat Tallina U 122-43 in their very first second-stage game.  Sydney Carter did not take part in that game, but I don’t think she was needed.

On her Twitter account (@Syndey_Rene) she stated that she was severely ill with the flu.  Let’s hope that she gets better soon!

 

Damiris Dantas

Damiris Dantas is currently recovering from a left leg tibia stress injury.

 

Reshanda Gray

(Battipaglia, Italy)

On Sunday, Reshanda Gray and Battipaglia went to Ragusa and lost 81-64, falling to 6-10 on the season and into a tie for ninth place.  It’s not often that you see a team have just one assist in a game, but Battipaglia only had one assisted basket (to her credit, Reshanda Gray had the assist).  Battipaglia went 7-for-14 behind the three-point arc and still fell short.

So what happened?  Battipaglia had 22 turnovers to just 10 from Ragusa.

Battipaglia:  Asia Boyd 19, Marzia Tagliamento 14, Kourtney Treffers 14/11 reb, Gray 11/10 reb.

Ragusa:  Rebekkah Brunson 21/9 reb, Jenifer Nadalin 15, Maja Erkic 14, Milica Micovic 10.

Box score Battipaglia/Ragusa:
http://lbf-web.dataproject-stats.com/Tabellino.asp?IdGara=16008

 

Tiffany Hayes

(Yakin Dogu, Turkey)

Yakin Dogu’s woes keep coming as they lost their ninth straight game on the road on Sunday to Besitkas 90-62.  The heartbreaker is that Besitkas is a sub-.500 team.  Yakin Dogu is at 4-12 on the season and in a three-way tie for 11th place.

Down by 10 points going into the fourth quarter, Yakin Dogu would lose that stanza by a 30-12 margin.  Besitkas shot 51.3 percent from two-point range and an astonishing 73.3 percent from behind the arc, going 11-for-15.

Yakin Dogu:  Hayes 18/7 reb, Kelsey Bone 16/6 reb, Alyssa Thomas 15/8 reb.

Besitkas:  Luca Ivankovic 22/10 reb, Cappie Pondexter 20/8 ast, Sandra Viana 18, Jelena Milovanovic 14, Saziye Uner 13.

Box score Yakin Dogu/Besitkas: 
http://www.tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl/mac-detay?Lig=7368&MacNo=1BA1443&Sezon=156

 

Aneika Henry/Angel McCoughtry

(Mersin, Turkey)

On Sunday, Mersin beat visiting Edirne 74-66.  Mersin remains at 11-5 and fifth place in the Turkish League.  Unlike Battipaglia above, Mersin knew how to share the ball with 22 assists.  Mersin was up 40-31 at halftime and by the end of the third quarter had extended their lead to 14 points, shooting 50 percent from the floor throughout the game.

Mersin:  McCoughtry 24/6 reb/7 ast, Marina Kuzina 20/7 reb, Henry 16/12 reb,

Edirne:  Yasemin Dalgalar 11/8 reb, Olesia Malashenko 11, Stefanie Dolson 11, Ivory Latta 10-, Nevena Jovanovic 10.

Box score Mersin/Edirne:
http://www.tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl/mac-detay?Lig=7368&MacNo=1BA1440&Sezon=156

 

Sancho Lyttle

(UMMC, Ekaterinburg)

On Tuesday, January 19, UMMC opened up Week 11 play with a win on the road over Belgian team Castors Braine 52-78 to remain atop Group B at 9-2.  The win also clinched a playoff spot as UMMC is guaranteed to move on to the quarterfinals round no matter what happens in its final three Group B games.   Braine was out of the game after the first quarter and were pretty much flogged 11-0 in transition points.   The Belgians only shot 35.2 percent for the game.

UMMC:  Diana Taurasi 26/6 reb/5 ast, Sandrine Gruda 10/8 reb, Brittney Griner 10, Lyttle 5/7 reb (22 min played).

Castors Braine:  Sidney Spencer 11, Ann Wauters 11.

On Saturday, UMMC played 11^th place Dynamo-GUVD on the road in domestic league play and won easily, 80-57 to move to 14-0 on the regular season.  Dynamo-GUVD was held to 33.8 percent by UMMC and the visitors won all four quarters.  Diana Taurasi did not play in that game, but she wasn’t needed.

UMMC:  Brittney Griner 16/7 reb, Kristi Toliver 16, Lyttle 13/8 reb, Alba Torrens 12/6 ast.

Dynamo-GUVD:  Natalya Dorovskikh 15, Elizaveta Komarova 14, Miah-Marie Langlois 13/7 reb/6 ast, Kayla Alexander 9/15 reb.

Box score UMMC/Castors Braine:
http://www.fibaeurope.com/euroleaguewomen/gameID_11814-B-43-11.html

Box score UMMC/Dynamo-GUVD:
http://www.russiabasket.ru/game/?id=110000&compId=11004&tab=0

Complete game UMMC/Castors Braine:

Current Overall Statistics:

Matee Ajavon (Poland):  13 games, 13.6 ppg/3.8 rpg/4.6 apg

Cierra Burdick (Eurocup **):  8 games, 10.1 ppg/10.3 rpg/1.4 apg

Cierra Burdick (Italy):  16 games, 10.0 ppg/8.6 rpg/1.4 apg

Sydney Carter (Eurocup **):  10 games, 15.9 ppg/3.0 rpg/3.2 apg

Sydney Carter (Latvia):  8 games, 10.3 ppg/2.5 rpg/3.6 apg

Sydney Carter (EEWBL):  7 games, 9.1 ppg/2.0 rpg/2.1 apg

Reshanda Gray (Italy):  16 games, 16.3 ppg/10.8 rpg/0.9 apg

Tiffany Hayes (Turkey):  16 games, 19.0 ppg/4.6 rpg/2.3 apg

Aneika Henry (Turkey): 16 games, 15.3 ppg/10.7 rpg/2.3 apg

Sancho Lyttle (Euroleague):  11 games, 6.3 ppg/6.4 rpg/0.8 apg

Sancho Lyttle (Russia):  9 games, 12.2 ppg/8.1 rpg/2.1 apg

Angel McCoughtry (Turkey):  15 games, 24.9 ppg/7.3 rpg/3.6 apg

** – Eurocup season complete