Basketball Euroleague Women 2010

Valencia Goes Crazy Over The Final Four

Ros Casares launched ticket sales on Friday for the EuroLeague Women
Final Four that is to be staged at La Fonteta in Valencia.
Only
the club's season-ticket holders are allowed to purchase tickets on
Friday and Saturday at the city's El Corte Ingles department stores
while from Monday, the general public can buy them.
"In certain
centers of El Corte Ingles, they have needed to reinforce staff in order
to help with the selling of tickets seeing as there have been more fans
than expected," Ros Casares general manager Carme Lluveras said.
The
ticket prices for the event, which has two Semi-Finals on April 9 and a
title game and battle for third place on April 11, range from €12 to
€17.
Fans can also buy tickets for a given game at the price of €8
to €11.
Ros Casares are hosting the Final Four for the first
time.
They will go up against Wisla Can-Pack Krakow in the second
game on Friday while in the opener, three-time defending champions
Spartak Moscow Region will face UMMC Ekaterinburg for the third year in a
row.
Ros Casares aim at selling out La Fonteta for at least one
game during the Final Four.
The 9,000 spectators would
automatically mean a new attendance record for a EuroLeague Women game.

Spartak Moscow Region had to suffer but they won a fourth consecutive
EuroLeague Women crown on Sunday by beating Final Four hosts Ros
Casares in front of a EuroLeague Women Final Four record 7,800
spectators.

Diana Taurasi followed up her 37-point explosion
against UMMC Ekaterinburg on Friday with a game-high 29 against Ros as
Spartak won 87-80.

The American superstar was voted MVP of the Final Four, something
that also happened last year when Spartak beat Halcon Avenida in
Salamanca.

"This is probably the sweetest of them all," Taurasi
said of the title.

Spartak, whose owner Shabtai von Kalmanovic
died tragically on November 2, wore t-shirts after the game that read
'This is 4 Shabtai'.

They had ample opportunity to fold against
Ros, who were cheered on by a EuroLeague Women Final Four record 7,800
spectators.

Erika De Souza and Delisha Milton-Jones wreaked havoc
in the first three minutes for the Spanish club, helping them build an
11-4 lead.

Spartak replied with a 9-0 run, one that was sparked by
a Taurasi jumper - her first points of the game.

Marina Karpunina
followed with a three-pointer from the left corner and the Russia
international next added a lay-up to knot the contest at 11-11.

Janell
McCarville then caught a pass from Sue Bird and made a lay-up to give
Spartak their first lead of the game with 4:40 remaining.

That was
a sign of things to come because McCarville would go on to turn in the
most important performance of her EuroLeague Women career.

She
finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds and might have earned MVP honors
herself had she not had a brilliant teammate named Taurasi.

McCarville
finished the first quarter with a tip-in to give Spartak a 24-23 lead.

With
6:39 to go in the first half, Spartak took the lead for good.

Irina
Osipova followed up Bird's miss with a put-back and McCarville then
added a jumper.

With McCarville and Ilona Korstin pouring in the
points and Taurasi on the bench in the closing minutes of the first
half, Spartak built a 49-39 interval lead.

McCarville left the
court at half-time with a game-high 13 points.

When play resumed,
Ros Casares made numerous runs and kept the pressure on.

Two De
Souza free-throws and a Belinda Snell jump shot cut the gap to 57-56
late in the third quarter, only for Osipova and Korstin to combine for
the last six points of the frame for a 63-57 advantage.

Snell's
three-ball pulled Ros to within 63-60 but Korstin followed up her own
miss for a five-point lead.

Amaya Valdemoro made an acrobatic
lay-up only for Osipova and McCarville to answer with baskets for
Spartak.

McCarville even showed her ability to bury the
long-distance shot, drilling a three-pointer with 7:11 to go in the game
for a 72-62 lead.

Ros got no closer than six points the rest of
the way.

Milton-Jones had 13 points, Erika 12 and Valdemoro 10 for
Ros.