The reigning Russian and EuroLeague Champion UMMC Ekaterinburg won the derby with Dynamo Kursk of the Russian basketball Women Premier League by 79:70 (27:20; 21:14; 12:24; 19:12). This was the last match of the regular season with both teams ending in the top positions of the standings.
Since the first seconds, the acting champion made a clear statement for success founded mainly on high field goal realization percentage and excellent defense. UMMC Ekaterinburg took a lead at the start of the match, but successful triples allowed Dynamo to keep on moving forward. The first quarter ended with a comfortable advance for UMMC Ekaterinburg.
The second quarter did not present something much different. In the middle of the part, Dynamo succeeded to reduce the lead of the champions and for a short moment it had melted to only 4 pts, but with several good shots, UMMC Ekaterinburg ended the quarter 14 pts ahead.
However, the third quarter was total domination of the guests. In the end, Dynamo Kursk reduced the result to 60:58 with only 2 points advantage for UMMC Ekaterinburg. The last quarter started with an exchange of points and several times the result almost went equal. However, with a strong final sprint, UMMC Ekaterinburg won the match with 79:70.
UMMC Ekaterinburg center Brittney Griner claimed the best results and missed a couple of rebounds to take a double-double – 24 points and 8 rebounds. Breanna Stewart also finished with a double-double – 17 points and 12 rebounds. Emma Meesseman dropped 14 points, while Alba Torrens contributed 10 points and 8 assists.
Arike Ogunbowalle led the way for Dynamo and ended up with 24 points, while Olga Frolkina netted 20 points.
In another match of the Russian basketball Women Premier League, Novosibirsk smashed Spartak Moscow by 82:61 (24:15; 13:15; 19:10: 26:21). Both teams are in 6th and 8th position, respectively.
