Turkish basketball powerhouse Fenerbahçe Alagöz Holding entered the 2022-23 EuroLeague Women season with a “win or bust” mentality, having come up short in last year’s championship game. The club invested heavily in imports, adding big names Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Emma Meesseman at various points throughout the season to an already-impressive core that featured Satou Sabally, Kayla McBride and Alina Iagupova — moves that made Fenerbahçe the clear favorite to win it all.
Those championship dreams have now been realized. On Sunday, Fenerbahçe trounced fellow Turkish club CBK Mersin Yenişehir Bld in the EuroLeague Women final, winning the first-ever EuroLeague Women championship in its storied history on that backs of its imported stars.
History was made in the competition’s third-place game, too, as Italian club Beretta Famila Schio defeated EuroLeague Women Final Four host ZVVZ USK Praha in a nail-biting contest that had more twists and turns than one could count — including an improbable and controversial finish that epitomized the unpredictable nature of the EuroLeague Women postseason.
Fenerbahçe cruises past Mersin to win EuroLeague Women title
Until 2023, Fenerbahçe had never won a EuroLeague Women championship, despite routinely being one of the higher-profile clubs in the competition. Fenerbahçe finished in second place in 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2022, but had yet to win a EuroLeague Women gold medal.
From the early minutes of Sunday’s championship game, it was clear that was about to change. Fenerbahçe jumped out to an early lead over Mersin and never looked back, powered by an aggressive defense (12 steals in the game) and a performance from Stewart that was, in a word, superhuman. So dominant was the forward that for much of the first half, she matched Mersin’s scoring by herself; Stewart finished the game with 35 points, setting a new EuroLeague Women record for points scored in a final game.
Fenerbahçe got championship-level contributions up and down its roster, too, including an ultra-efficient 10 points, seven rebounds and six steals in 24 minutes from regular-season MVP…
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