With the second round of qualifying games for FIBA’s Women’s EuroBasket 2025 competition about to begin, the 2024-25 EuroLeague Women season is currently on a brief hiatus. During what is known as the “national team break,” many clubs across Europe will get the next couple of weeks off as their players compete for their respective national teams in these qualifiers.
Given the small break in the action, let’s run through what’s happened in group play thus far and what (and who) to watch for when the games resume in late November.
Mersin, Fenerbahçe and Valencia are advancing to the second round
Among the changes to the competition system for the 2024-25 EuroLeague Women season was the introduction of a second phase to group play, at which point the field narrows to the top-ranked clubs from the first phase. The goal of this change was to “raise the stakes” of games throughout the season, ideally by eliminating weaker clubs from the competition earlier on and diversifying the number of possible matchups between the stronger ones.
Though there are still two weeks remaining in the first phase of group play, several clubs have already qualified for the next round:
- Group B: ÇBK Mersin and Žabiny Brno
- Group C: Fenerbahçe Opet and Casademont Zaragoza
- Group D: Umana Reyer Venezia and Valencia Basket Club
Most of these names are not surprising. Clubs like Fenerbahçe, Mersin and Valencia have rosters stacked with international talent and occupied the top three spots in FIBA’s preseason EuroLeague Women power rankings. Fenerbahçe and Mersin both remain undefeated in group play with 4-0 records, and little has changed regarding their championship aspirations.
On the other hand, no one has technically been eliminated from second-round contention quite yet, though it’s not looking good for DVTK HUN-Therm (1-3 in Group A), Olympiacos B.C. (0-4 in Group B), Villeneuve-d’Ascq LM (0-4 in Group C) and UNI Győr (0-4 in Group D). Villeneuve-d’Ascq has been particularly disappointing after making it all the way to the EuroLeague Women title game last season.
Finally, nothing has been decided yet in Group A. Beretta Famila Schio (3-1) and Perfumerias Avenida (2-2) both got a decent amount of hype entering the season, but neither club has punched their ticket to the second round, despite Schio going 2-0 against Avenida in head-to-head matchups. HUN-Therm still has a chance to move on, though it will be difficult after a pair of losses to Basket Landes (2-2).
Youngsters Janelle Salaün and Pauline Astier have been showing out
One of the many reasons to follow EuroLeague Women is to watch young international stars develop their games against the highest levels of competition, and given what we’ve seen in group play thus far, the future of women’s basketball in France is looking like it’s in good hands.
23-year-old forward Janelle Salaün, who is in her first season with Schio after playing for Villeneuve-d’Ascq since she was a teenager, is having a breakout campaign. Salaün averaged 11.5 points per game for Villeneuve last season, so it’s not like she’s coming out of nowhere, but she’s been even better for Schio, ranking fourth in the competition in scoring (17.8 points per game) and 10th in rebounding (6.8 rebounds per game) while shooting a highly efficient 52 percent from the field and 45.5 percent on 3-pointers.
Then you have the play of guards Pauline Astier (22 years old) and Marine Fauthoux (23 years old)—two more players who, like Salaün, are no strangers to the French basketball circuit, but are nonetheless turning heads in EuroLeague Women. Astier has been tremendous for Bourges, averaging 13.3 points and seven assists per game to go along with a ridiculous 4.3 steals, the latter of which lead the competition by a healthy margin. Fauthoux doesn’t have quite as large of a role on a loaded Mersin roster, but she’s still contributing eight points and five assists (seventh in EuroLeague Women) in 30 minutes played per game.
France isn’t the only country well-represented by young talent. Finnish forward Awak Kuier (23 years old) has been one of the most intriguing up-and-coming players in the world for a while now, and she’s been excellent thus far in her first EuroLeague Women season, leading Venezia in scoring at 15.3 points per game while chipping in 1.3 steals and 1.5 blocks on the defensive end. Kuier has scored in double figures in each of her first four games, and she’s been a big reason why Venezia has already locked up a spot in the second round of group play.
