EuroLeague Women: Ogunbowale, Kursk secure final playoff seed

Dynamo Kursk (3-3) defeated Izmit Belediyespor (0-6) 84-46 on Thursday to advance to the 2020-21 EuroLeague Women playoffs.

Kursk was led by Alex Bentley (21 points) and Arike Ogunbowale (14 points), while Clarissa dos Santos scored 23 points for Izmit.

With Kursk earning Group A’s second and final playoff seed by way of tiebreaker, the eight teams participating in the EuroLeague Women playoffs finally are confirmed. Perfumerias Avenida (Spain) join Kursk from Group A and LDLC ASVEL Féminin (France) and Fenerbahçe (Turkey) will represent Group B.

Group C will send UMMC Ekaterinburg (Russia) and Spar Girona (Spain) to the postseason; Sopron Basket (Hungary) and Galatasaray (Turkey) will represent Group D.

The first round of the postseason will begin on March 17.

The matchups are as follows:

All games can be live-streamed for free on FIBA’s YouTube channel.

Mini recaps of last two group play matchups

Nadezhda defeated Izmit Belediyespor 80-40 on Tuesday (Feb. 16) in a blowout

Recap: Even without Monique Billings, Nadezhda cruised to an easy victory behind Anastasiia Shilova (16 points) and Viktoriia Medvedeva (15 points). Izmit scored just six points in the first quarter and shot 21 percent from the field for the game. Not to be overlooked in Izmit’s loss was the heroic performance from Clarissa dos Santos: 17 points and 19 rebounds (10 offensive).

Dynamo Kursk commanded an 84-46 victory over Izmit Belediyespor on Thursday (Feb. 18)

Recap: Izmit won the first quarter 16-14, but it was all Kursk from there. Alex Bentley had a hot shooting game, scoring 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting, as Izmit once again got little production outside of Clarissa dos Santos (23 points and 14 rebounds). Kursk shot 12-of-26 (46.2 percent) from 3-point range, while Izmit made just 1-of-17 (5.9 percent) 3-pointers.