UMMC Put Away Pesky TEO Vilnius

Deanna Nolan, Svetlana Abrosimova and Sandrine Gruda fired UMMC Ekaterinburg to a decisive 85-56 win over TEO Vilnius in the first game of the EuroLeague Women season on Wednesday.

In the Group A game, the visitors from Lithuania impressed early on with Quanitra Hollingsworth scoring 10 of her 17 points in the first quarter.

They only trailed 25-23 at the end of the period and then knotted the game at 27-27 after two straight baskets by Renee Montgomery in the second period.

That's when UMMC, one of the teams expected to challenge three-time defending champions Spartak Moscow Region for the European crown, took over.

Nolan, who also had 10 points in the opening frame, pulled up and hit a three-pointer and Russia international Abrosimova followed with a trey the next trip down the floor.

UMMC's Sandrine Gruda, the starting center in France's EuroBasket gold-medal winning side this summer in Latvia, added two straight jump shots for her first points of the game.

TEO, who had matched UMMC blow for blow in the first 13 minutes of the contest, suddenly found themselves trailing 37-27 with 4:28 to go before the intermission.

The Lithuanian club hit back with Chioma Nnamaka's jump shot and two free-throws cutting the deficit to 38-32 with 1:06 to play in the second quarter.

Gruda and Abrosimova struck again, though, as UMMC had the final say in the first half.

The former drew a foul from Nnamaka and made two free-throws while the latter nailed another three-pointer for a 43-32 UMMC advantage at the break.

Nolan's 13 points led the UMMC scorers at half-time while Abrosimova had eight and Gruda seven.

TEO managed to twice reduce the arrears to seven in the third quarter but UMMC got the wind in their sails again and pulled away for a big win.

Nolan led all UMMC scorers with 17 points while Abrosimova finished with 15, along with five rebounds and three steals.

Gruda had 13 points and  nine rebounds.

Hollingsworth also had a game-high 15 rebounds for TEO.

The visitors, however, were out-rebounded as a team, 47-34, and also turned the ball over 22 times.

Quotes UMMC Ekaterinburg vs. TEO Vilnius

Agnieszka Bibrzycka (UMMC Ekaterinburg, Player):

"After some easy wins in the Russian SuperLeague we felt as a strong team. In the EuroLeague Women we are playing against strong opponents like Ros Casares and Galatasary so we must perfect our game."

Gundars Vetra (UMMC Ekaterinburg, Head Coach):

"In the first half of the game we made some mistakes, but then we demonstrated a more aggressive defense and better team work on the court. Moreover, we were missing our point guards Cappie Pondexter and Celine Dumerc for which we had to use other players in their positions. However, the result of the game is good and we played a good game."