Taranto Advances to EuroCup Final

It was all Cras Basket Taranto this morning in the highly-anticipated return leg of the EuroCup semifinal matchup between Taranto and Dynamo Moscow. Dynamo returned home hoping to make up a six-point deficit from last week's matchup in Italy, and led by three after one quarter. From there, the visitors took control by outscoring Dynamo 23-12 in the second quarter. Taranto cruised to an 85-75 victory that gave them a 161-146 aggregate advantage.

Getting 17 points from Janell Burse on 6-for-9 shooting, Dynamo had a good day on offense. However, the home team simply could not stop Taranto defensively. Taranto shot 58.6 percent from the field and scored at least 20 points in all four quarters. It was Storm center Suzy Batkovic who powered the attack, scoring 24 points and knocking down a pair of three-pointers, hitting 9-of-15 from the field. Megan Mahoney added 19 for Taranto, which also got a strong all-around game from former Storm guard Michelle Greco (six points, three assists and seven steals).

Batkovic and company will play Galatasaray for the EuroCup title after Galatasaray beat Kursk Dynamo 62-39 - holding them to 11 second-half points - to come from behind and take that aggregate series. Galatasaray is led by Seimone Augustus, who had 38 points today to nearly outscore Kursk Dynamo all by herself, as well as Sophia Young. Taranto hosts the first matchup on April 2 before visiting Turkey to complete the EuroCup finals on April 9.