FIBA EuroLeague Women 2017-18 Sunday Recap: Emma Meesseman named MVP after UMMC wins title

The FIBA EuroLeague Women 2017-18 season is now complete. UMMC Ekaterinburg won its fourth European title over Sopron Basket while Dynamo Kursk beat Yakin Dogu Universitesi in the bronze medal match.

If American talent was the highlight of Friday’s games, Europen players’ performances defined Sunday’s action.

Emma Meesseman leads UMMC to the title and wins MVP

UMMC Ekaterinburg beat Sopron Basket, 72-53 in the championship game to give the Foxes their fourth European title. Mystics forward Emma Meesseman scored 19 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and dished five assists in the championship game.In addition, she was named the Finals MVP.

In a year, and really, a WNBA career where Meesseman often found herself close, but not close enough for individual honors, she finally got an award acknowledging the impact she provides her teams. Here are some of her highlights from tonight’s performance below:

In short, Sopron was outmatched from the start and just had no answer for a frontcourt of Meesseman, Mercury center Brittney Griner, and Lynx forward Maya Moore. Yvonne Turner scored 21 points for Sopron, but it was nowhere close to enough

Third Place Game: Dynamo Kursk wins third place over Yakin Dogu Universitesi, 87-82

Sonja Petrovic scored 24 points and mde four of six threes to lead Dynamo Kursk to the bronze medal over Turkish power Yakin Dogu. Jantel Lavneder led Yakin Dogu with 15 points and nine rebounds.

In the semifinals, we saw Dream guard Angel McCoughtry put on a big show for Kursk against Maya Moore and UMMC. But today, McCoughtry only scored five points on 2 of 11 shooting. Meanwhile, Sparks center Maria Vadeeva dropped 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting to tip this game in favor for Kursk.

The European season isn’t over

If you are a WNBA fan who isn’t familiar with the way European women’s basketball works, the teams play for multiple championships and cups a year, similar to the way soccer teams do in Europe.

So even though the European women’s basketball season just ended, there are still domestic championships to play for. In fact, UMMC and Dynamo Kursk will play for the PBL championship in the Finals later this week! Last year, UMMC won the PBL Finals despite finishing third in EuroBasket Women. So could we see something like this again this season? We’ll see!