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The WNBA season may have ended earlier than expected for the Seattle Storm, but for some players, basketball continues
Six Storm players have joined teams in Europe and Australia for overseas action. Katie Lou and Karlie Samuelson return to Perfumerias Avenida Salamanca (Spain), where they will play together for the second consecutive season. Kennedy Burke also signed with a Spaniard team, Spar Girona, while Epiphanny Prince entered her ninth tenure with Dynamo Kursk (Russia). In Australia, both Stephanie Talbot and Ezi Magbegor will play in the WNBL, representing Adelaide Lightning and Melbourne Boomers, respectively.
Las hermanas Samuelson vuelven a Salamanca
Reigning 2020-2021 Liga Endesa (Spain) champion and Euroleague Women’s runner-up, Perfumerias Avenida has been home to some of the most prominent basketball players in the world. The likes of Becky Hammon, Amaya Valdemoro, Sancho Little, Alba Torrens, Erika de Souza, and Storm’s own Jewell Loyd are just a few to have dressed in “el azúl”. In May, Avenida won its seventh national title, with an 11-point, 6-rebounds performance from Katie Lou Samuelson. In the Euroleague Finals, the team fell 78-68 to the star-studded UMMC Ekaterinburg, which counted on Breanna Stewart’s 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.
2020-2021 Averages (Liga Endesa):
Katie Lou Samuelson: 25.2 MPG, 15.6 PPG, 49.9% FG, 41.2% 3FG, 81.4% FT, 4.7 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.3 SPG
Karlie Samuelson: 20.7 MPG, 7.6 PPG, 45.7% FG, 35.3% 3FG, 80% FT, 3.3 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.1 SPG
New home in Catalonia for Kennedy Burke
Storm guard Kennedy Burke joined current 2020-2021 Copa de la Reina* champion Spar Girona for her first Liga Endesa season. The team qualified to the Euroleague Women for the second consecutive year and looks to go even further in the tournament after falling short to Spanish rival Perfumerias Avenida during the quarterfinals series (2-0 in a best-of-three) in the 2021 bubble.
Burke started her overseas career with the Turkish team Bellona Kayseri Basketbol in the 2019-2020 EuroCup Women (Euroleague’s second division). The season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2021 the UCLA alumna played for Dinamo Sassari in the Lega Basket Femminile (Italy), where she was the country’s score leader with a 21.8 points per game average.
2020-2021 Averages (Lega Basket Femminile):
28.0 MPG, 21.8 PPG, 50% FG, 28% 3FG, 81% FT, 11.5 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.8 SPG
Epiphanny Prince returns to Dynamo Kursk
After a short stint with the Turkish powerhouse Galatasary alongside Storm teammate Mercedes Russell and former Storm teammate Sami Whitcomb, Epiphanny Prince is back with a very familiar team: Dynamo Kursk. Prince’s history with the traditional Russian club dates back to 2012 and goes all the way to 2020, time during which she won an Euroleague Women’s title (2017) with WNBA stars Angel McCoughtry and Nneka Ogwumike.
In the 2020-2021 season, Galatasaray fell short to Turkish rival Fenerbahce during Eurolague’s quarterfinals and finished second in the KBSL after Fener swept Gala 3-0 in the finals best-of-five series.
2020-2021 Averages (KBSL – Women’s Basketball Super League):
31.0 MPG, 11.3 PPG, 37.9% FG, 26.3% 3FG, 86.7% FT, 3.0 RPG, 5.5 APG, 2.4 SPG
Ezi, Ezi, Steph, oi, oi, oi
Stephanie Talbot and Ezi Magbegor both signed with teams in the WNBL (Australia) for the offseason.
Talbot renewed her contract for the third consecutive year with Adelaide Lightning, where she started her professional career in 2011 and won the 2013 Betty Watson Australian Youth Player of the Year. Ezi Magbegor, who signed with the Melbourne Boomers for the fourth consecutive season, was also a Betty Watson Australian Youth Player of the Year recipient, in 2020, with 38 out of 41 votes. The Storm Center has always played offseason in Australia, while Stephanie Talbot had two short runs in Europe between 2016 and 2018 (Poland and France).