Storm Teams Split in EuroCup Quarters

The first leg of the two-game aggregate score EuroCup quarterfinals was played Thursday, and the two Storm players whose teams are still alive saw opposite results.

Dynamo Moscow went on the road to face ZKK Hemofarm Vrsac and proved a most unwelcome guess, crushing the Serbian side 90-63. The game was so lopsided that Dynamo was able to rest its foreign stars. Storm center Janell Burse played just 11 minutes, posting four points and seven rebounds in that span. Aussie Belinda Snell led Dynamo with 23 points in as many minutes, shooting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. New Connecticut Sun guard Anete Jekabsone-Zogota chipped in 17 points, as did Oxana Zakalyuzhnaya.

Athinaikos BC had a much tougher time of it on the road. Katie Gearlds and company were handed a 77-52 defeat by one of the two other Russian teams still alive, Dynamo Kursk. Kursk, which doesn't have many big-name international players, got 22 points from Varvara Psareva and shot 10-of-20 from three-point range. Athinaikos struggled with turnovers and missed shots. Gearlds finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

The return leg of the series will be played a week from today, with the settings changing place. Athinaikos will try desperately to overcome the large gap, while Dynamo returns home easily in control of its own series and confident of advancing to the EuroCup semifinals.