The face of Russian women's basketball for the past decade, center Maria Stepanova, has parted with CSKA Moscow and joined Superleague and EuroLeague  Women rivals UMMC Ekaterinburg.

CSKA and Ekaterinburg have confirmed that Stepanova, the FIBA Europe Women's Player of the Year in 2005 and '06, have confirmed the 29-year-old has switched clubs.

Asjha Jones led a balanced UMMC Ekaterinburg scoring attack with 20 points on Wednesday as the Russian team remained unbeaten in Group C with a 94-64 victory at USK Prague.

The fans who showed up to watch the game in the Czech Republic were buzzing with excitement after Prague's last-second victory at rivals Gambrinus over the weekend.

UMMC Ekaterinburg took a big step towards Group C supremacy by beating Spanish powerhouse Ros Casares 89-81 on Wednesday in front a 6,500-crowd in Russia.

UMMC Ekaterinburg rode a strong first-half performance to an 82-71 victory at Lotos PKO BP Gdynia on Thursday.

The star-studded Russian outfit opened up a 23-18 lead by the end of the first quarter and then lowered the boom over the next 10 minutes, outscoring the Polish giants 23-12 for a 46-30 half-time advantage.

In the gold medal game at the Olympics, Australia's Penny Taylor and Team USA's Cappie Pondexter were adversaries.

Now the two are teammates at UMMC Ekaterinburg and if Wednesday's 92-62 thumping of Jolly JBS Sibenik in Croatia is anything to go by, they give the Russian team a mighty one-two punch.