12/14 Overseas Update

After our last update focused on Euroleague, this team we're going to focus on league play with an update on how teams featuring Storm players have performed this season. There are still several undefeated clubs in this group vying for the top spot in their respective countries.

- Spartak, featuring Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, is 7-0 and tied with UMMC Ekaterinburg atop the Russian Superleague. CSKA Moscow is just behind, however, at 6-0. We won't have a good idea of the relative strength of these powers until they start playing each other. Spartak plays UMMC on Jan. 6 and CSKA on Jan. 12.

Jackson hasn't shot the ball well by her high standards, but is averaging 11.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Bird has hit 69% of her two-point attempts; she has averaged 10.5 points, 2.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

- Janell Burse's USK Praha squad is also 7-0 in Czech league play, tied for first place with long-time rival Gambrinus Sika Brno. Those two squads have, in recent seasons, distanced themselves from the rest of the Czech squads, making their matchups very important. Burse is averaging 11.3 points and 7.6 rebounds.

- Katie Gearlds is playing for Kosit 2013 Kosice, and I'm having a little bit of a hard time making sense of the team stats - I've got free throws (Th) and three-pointers (S3), but I'm not really sure why there are both S2 and Sk, both of which are purportedly two-point shots. Maybe shooting foul shots? I think Gearlds is shooting 60.8% from the field. She's averaging 10.2 points and, I think, 3.3 rebounds per game. Anyways, Gearlds and Janel McCarville have led the team to a 10-0 record in Slovakian league play.

- All I can find about the performance of Betty Lennox's K.V. Imperial AEL in the Cypriot League is that the team is 5-0 and tops in the league.

- In Italy, the Storm's players have some work to do. Phard Napoli, with center Astou Ndiaye-Diatta, is at 5-4. Doneeka Lewis' Fiera di Roma Pomezia squad is 0-9. Lewis is averaging 15.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Ndiaye-Diatta is averaging 12.0 points and 5.9 rebounds. And former Storm forward Adia Barnes, Ndiaye-Diatta's teammate in Napoli, is averaging 7.9 points and 5.6 rebounds.

- The Hondarribia Irun squad of Ashley Robinson is in the middle of the Spanish FEB Liga Feminina pack at 3-5. Robinson has averaged 3.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

- Lastly, Tanisha Wright's Raanana Hertzliya team suffered its first loss of the season Monday, a 23-point blowout at the hands of Elizur Ramla. Still, at 9-1, Raanana leads the Israeli DI league. Wright ranks third in the league in scoring at 21.6 ppg and is adding 7.0 rebounds, 5.8 assists (second in the league) and 3.6 steals (second). That's impressive in a league with several WNBA players.