Ros Roll To Big Win At Gdynia

A rampant Ros Casares travelled to Poland to face Lotos Gdynia on Thursday and won their third consecutive game in the EuroLeague Women.

With Sancho Lyttle in the squad for the first time and fellow post players Ann Wauters and Isabelle Yacoubou dominant yet again, the Valencia club claimed a 90-72 victory.

Ros and Galatasaray are now 3-0 and on top of Group A while Gdynia are 0-3.

Lyttle, one of the star performers in Perfumerias Avenida's European title winning side last season, had 18 points and nine rebounds.

She was a late arrival to new club Ros Casares after playing in the WNBA Finals with the Atlanta Dream.

Yacoubou had a game-high 23 points and Wauters poured in 18.

Wauters has been on a tear since returning to basketball after missing most of last season while having a baby.

The Belgian center went into the contest averaging 21.5 points and 11 rebounds in the EuroLeague Women.

Yacoubou, a gold-medal winner with France at EuroBasket 2009, scored 19 points in last week's victory over VICI Aistes.

Any team with designs on putting Ros Casares on the line instead of giving away easy shots had better come up with a different strategy because the Spanish club sank 27 of their 28 free-throw attempts.

The visitors, who are coached by Natalia Hejkova, trailed only early in the contest but went in front to stay in the first quarter.

After Gdynia's Aneika Henry tied the contest at 6-6, two Silvia Dominguez free-throws and jump shots by Yacoubou and Wauters started a Ros Casares 12-2 run that was capped by four straight points by Lyttle.

A Yacoubou jumper gave the Spanish club a 28-18 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Wauters had 10 points in the opening frame and Yacoubou six.

The advantage grew late in the first half.

Yacoubou nailed another jump shot to make it 42-26 and Dominguez's lay-up right before the end of the second quarter left Ros in command at 48-30.

Wauters had 14 points, Yacoubou 10 and Lyttle eight at the break.

Ros began the third quarter with a 6-2 run and cruised to victory.

Justyna Zurowska led Gdynia with 18 points and Adrijana Knezevic contributed 16.

Gdynia missed all nine of their shots from long range while Hejkova's team sank just one of seven.

Quotes Lotos Gdynia vs. Ros Casares Valencia

Natalia Hejkova, Ros Casares coach:
"It was very important game for us. Our team is still not complete. Inn this game we also wanted to show good and attractive basketball. Our first half was very good, we controled the game, but we have a lot work to do. We have new players in our team so we had some problems on the court, but we will fix it."

Javier Fort Puente, Lotos Gdynia coach:
"Congratulations to Ros Casares. We tried to close their inside players, because they have very good [post] players. But from the beginning they played their basketball and we couldn't stop them. We have a lot work to do and we must win the next game to keep thinking about the next round."

Ann Wauters, Ros Casares:
"When we were coming here we knew that Lotos is very strong at home. As our coach said, our team is still incomplete. This week more players will arrive. Our first half was good. We had good moments , we knew who is where on the court. But We also have to work harder at practice to eliminate our mistakes."

Adrijana Knezevic, Lotos Gdynia:
"We knew that Ros Casares is one of the best team in Europe. But from the begining we didn't play our basketball, we didn't do what we did during practice. We couldn't stop them in the paint. We played better in the second half but it was very hard if you are down by 18 points. It was too much against a team like Ros Casares. Next week we have an important game against Bourges and we have to win!"