When EuroLeague Women overhauled its competition system prior to last season, one of the goals was to “raise the stakes” of its regular season by turning group play into a two-round format. Advancing only
the best teams from the first round means the level of competition is theoretically elevated, and re-grouping teams keeps things interesting by guaranteeing fresh matchups.
We’re only two weeks into the second round of this season, and with the league currently on its annual holiday break, there won’t be any games for another couple weeks. That being said, some of what we’ve seen—including stunning comebacks, massive blowouts and downright impressive individual performances—has already been enough to draw some conclusions.
Spar Girona is for real
With a narrower field of competition, the second round of group play often separates the contenders from the pretenders, and just two weeks in, it’s already clear which category Spar Girona falls into. The Spanish club won’t be sneaking up on anyone like they did in the first round, when they went 5-. They’ve also raised their game to match the tougher competition, scoring double-digit victories over Beretta Famila Schio and Flammes Carolo Basket.
Statistically, it’s becoming harder and harder to write Girona’s performance off as a fluke. Their offense remains among the best in EuroLeague Women, averaging 81.6 points per game and shooting 47.9 percent from the field and 82.7 percent from the free throw line, ranking second in all three categories.
Girona also has the star power necessary to make a run in the EuroLeague Women playoffs. While you may not have heard some of these players prior to the season, you had better be familiar with by now.
Center Mariam Coulibaly has gotten off to a tremendous start in the second round, following up a 21-points, 9-rebound performance with a 30-point, 14-rebound masterclass, and she’s now shooting nearly 70 percent on 2-pointers. Girona also has a dynamic young playmaker in Justė Jocytė, who is averaging 15.4 points and 4.8 assists per game, and they benefitted from the most athletic players in all of EuroLeague Women in Laeticia Amihere (who has now left the team to participate in Unrivaled as a development pool player). The only remaining question—a potential lack of collective experience—doesn’t seem to be much of a factor, and it’s probably time we stop treating Girona like a Cinderella story and more like a legitimate contender.
With Gabby Williams on board, Fenerbahçe Opet may just be unbeatable
It was obvious from the beginning of the season that Fenerbahçe Opet would once again be the favorites to win it all.
Their ability to not only assemble an all-world level of individual talent (like fellow Turkish club ÇBK Mersin, who flamed out spectacularly in the first round), but to also get that talent to mesh in short order is without peer, and we’re again seeing what a group of some of the best players in Europe can do when their pure basketball ability is matched only by their selflessness. Fenerbahçe scores the ball frequently, efficiently and patiently, leading EuroLeague Women by healthy margins in points per game (91.5), field goal percentage (54.2 percent) and assists per game (27.9).
The rich got even richer when Fenerbahçe welcomed Gabby Williams back to their roster prior to the second round, and it took little time to get the reigning EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year re-acclimated. Through two games, Williams is averaging 13.5 points on 63.2 percent shooting, and she also racked up seven rebounds, eight assists and eight steals in those games, which Fenerbahçe won by absolutely massive margins (48 points and 31 points, respectively).
Make no mistake: Fenerbahçe could have made no midseason additions at all and still be the best team in the competition, but with a skilled and athletic wing player like Williams further improving their playmaking on both ends of the court, the gap between Fenerbahçe and the field has only grown.
Flammes Carolo Basket and DVTK HUNTHERM are overmatched
It happens. In every EuroLeague Women season, there are a few clubs that simply aren’t at the level of the rest.
Theoretically, eliminating the weakest teams from the first round makes the second round more competitive, but the system still isn’t perfect, and though teams like Flammes Carolo Basket and DVTK HUNTHERM will get the opportunity to play against the league’s best, early returns from the second round are not looking promising.
For Carolo, there was at least hope that a 2-4 record in the first round didn’t reflect how well they had played. Three of those four losses came by single digits, and they actually had a positive cumulative point differential at +9. Carolo has been blown out in each of its second-round games, however, and though they continue to shoot the ball well from 3-point range (39.9 percent; No. 1 in EuroLeague Women), one has to wonder where their offense will come from if those shots stop falling. They’re now 2-6 and in last place in Group E.
As for DVTK, one could argue that they only made the second round because they were grouped with a first-round club (Olympiacos SFP) that was even worse. DVTK went 1-5 in the first round with a cumulative point differential of -125, so expectations for the second round were not very high. To DVTK’s credit, they’ve played hard, nearly upsetting Umana Reyer Venezia in their most recent game. Even so, their record is now 1-7, three games behind fifth-place Zaragoza in Group F; it would be quite miraculous if DVTK manages to advance to the play-ins.
