French giants US Valenciennes Olympic broke away from Dynamo Moscow midway through the final quarter to win their opening clash in the EuroLeague Women 73-64.

Winners in 2001, and two years ago, Valenciennes are hoping to contend again after a sub-par 2004-05 campaign when they won eight of 12 games in the qualifying round but then made an uncharacteristic early exit by losing an eighth-final play-off tie against Ros Casares.

Dynamo led on Wednesday 60-58 with five minutes and 20 seconds remaining in the game after a jump shot from former Czech international Kamila Vodickova, but the hosts went on an 11-0 run to take control for good.

Vedrana Grgin Fonseca tied the game at 60-60 with a pair of free throws, and Vodickova then committed a cardinal sin in basketball by fouling three-point shooter Emmanuelle Hermouet, who punished her by making all three attempts from the charity stripe.

Valenciennes went on to have a 10-0 surge.

Fonseca had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Valenciennes, who got a team-high 16 points from forward Sandra Le Drean.

Vodickova had 14 points for Dynamo. Dynamo will have better nights shooting the ball. They were just 27 of 64 from the field, including three of 11 on three-point attempts.

They even struggled at the free throw line, making seven of 15.

The winners were 24 of 53 shooting overall, including an impressive five of eight from the arc.

And they also were an efficient 20 of 25 (80%) from the line.