One of the many surprises thrown up in the first weeks of the EuroLeague Women has been the patchy form of Samara.

		Stepanova currently leads all players in rebounding at 12 rpg

The Russian 2003 League Runners-Up had the perfect start to the season when they won the inaugural FIBA World Cup for Women's Clubs, defeating a WNBA Select Team in the final.

Nonetheless, they have been unable to translate that success over the to the EuroLeague Women, where they had won just 1 game going into this week's match-up with Lithuanian side Lietuvos Telekomas.

The Lithuanians have proved to be no pushovers this season, having shocked French giants Valenciennes 77:73 in their opening game of the season.

They also pushed Samara to the limit, although the Russians managed to pull out a 64:63 win, to get some forward momentum back into their EuroLeague Women season.

A huge part of the creation of that momentum on Wednesday night was Maria Stepanova, who had a monstrous night against Lietuvos Telekomas.

The 202 cm Russian national team center was everywhere on offense and defense, scoring 16 points on 7/14 shooting, pulling down an astonishing 20 rebounds and blocking 5 shots to earn MVP of the Week honours.