The 2023-24 EuroLeague Women Final Four is here! The competition will resume this Friday, April 12, with only four teams remaining in the postseason. The semifinal matchups will renew a Turkish rivalry between host Çukurova Basketbol Mersin and defending EuroLeague Women champion Fenerbahçe Alagöz Holding, while first-time Final Four participant Villeneuve-d’Ascq LM will get a crack at competition stalwart ZVVZ USK Praha.
After Friday’s games, the winners will play each other for the EuroLeague Women championship on Sunday, while the losers will compete for a third-place finish in the competition.
The Final Four will begin Friday at 9 a.m. ET, while the third-place game and championship game will be played on Sunday morning. The games will be streamed live and for free on FIBA’s EuroLeague Women YouTube channel, so there’s no reason to miss them! Let’s meet the competing clubs and which players you should keep an eye on.
Çukurova Basketbol Mersin (Turkey)
At a glance: 38.2 rebounds, 19.4 assists and 8.1 steals per game
It’s been a tumultuous season for Mersin, dealing with not one, but two head coaching changes and the surprising midseason transfer of two-time EuroLeague Women MVP Alina Iagupova to Valencia Basket. Having lost to Turkish rival Fenerbahçe in last year’s EuroLeague Women championship, there was a lot of pressure on Mersin to succeed, and there were times during group play when the club looked merely average.
Mersin has overcome that, however, and now returns to the EuroLeague Women Final Four for the second season in a row. Marina Mabrey, in her first season with the club, has been excellent, leading the competition in scoring at 18.8 points per game. The late-season addition of Kahleah Copper gives Mersin a dynamic one-two punch that could be the deciding factor in a single-game series.
Mersin’s biggest challenge: defeat Fenerbahçe. Last year’s EuroLeague Women title game wasn’t much of a contest, and Fenerbahçe currently holds a 2-0 series lead over Mersin in the KBSL (Turkish League) finals. Mersin is a club with few weaknesses, to be clear; whether it has enough strengths to get past the competition’s elite is something that must be proven, though having homecourt advantage in a big game isn’t something that should be discounted entirely.
Fenerbahçe Alagöz Holding (Turkey)
At a glance: 85.6 points and 25.1 assists per game; 50.2 percent field goal shooting
Can anyone unseat the defending champions?
Fenerbahçe entered the season as the hands-down favorite to win another EuroLeague Championship, and not much has happened since then to change that. The frontcourt skill of Napheesa Collier (17.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game) and Emma Meesseman (17.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game) is unmatched, while Kayla McBride has had a spectacular season shooting the basketball, averaging 16.9 points per game while knocking down 44 percent of her 3-point attempts.
As a unit, Fenerbahçe has been far and away the most impressive club in the competition, at least statistically. The reigning champs lead EuroLeague Women in points, assists and steals per game, field goal percentage and assist/turnover ratio—most of them by significant margins—and had by far the best cumulative point differential in group play (+289), which was over twice that of second-place Praha.
If there’s just one concern for Fenerbahçe, it’s the health of Meesseman, who missed the club’s quarterfinals matchup against Avenida due to a foot injury. She’s been playing in Fenerbahçe’s recent KBSL games, however, so we can safely assume that the star Belgian will be ready to go as her EuroLeague Women team truly begins its title defense. Given good health, there’s no stronger club in the competition.
Villeneuve-d’Ascq LM (France)
At a glance: 73.2 points, 7.4 3-pointers and 9.8 steals per game
Villeneuve-d’Ascq enters the semifinals as a feel-good story, making the EuroLeague Women Final Four for the first time in club history. A third-place finish in Group B during group play was good enough for the French club to earn a favorable matchup in the quarterfinals, and it defeated DVTK HUN-Therm to advance to the semis.
Villeneuve-d’Ascq has played in plenty of high-scoring games this season, playing at a fast pace while fielding plenty of offensive talent. Kennedy Burke, Kamiah Smalls and Shavonte Zellous combine to average 34.9 points in the backcourt, while forwards Janelle Salaün and Kariata Diaby average a combined 23 points. There aren’t many players on Villeneuve-d’Ascq’s roster that don’t need to be guarded; in total, they rank third in EuroLeague Women in scoring and first in made free throws per game (12.5).
Will Villeneuve-d’Ascq be able to defend at a similar level? That’s a valid question. Of the teams in the Final Four, Villeneuve-d’Ascq allowed by far the most points on average (70.4) during group play, and the competition it will be facing during the semifinals is the best of the best. There’s not much margin for error in the Final Four, either, with it being single-game elimination; Villeneuve-d’Ascq will need to trust in its offense-first identity and hope opposing scorers don’t get hot if it’s going to keep making history.
ZVVZ USK Praha (Czech Republic)
At a glance: 74.6 points, 40.5 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game
The Czech powerhouse returns to the Final Four for the seventh time in the last nine seasons, and although its roster looks a little different this time around, there’s been no denying the results.
Praha was led to consistent success by the frontcourt of Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones for years, but went in a different direction this season, handing the keys to Ezi Magbegor and Nyara Sabally. The young duo has been terrific, combining to average 26.2 points, 14.1 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game, and in doing so has helped maintain Praha’s identity as a highly-physical club that excels on the boards and in the paint. As a team, Praha led EuroLeague Women in rebounds (40.5) and blocks per game (4.2) and its players recorded 10 double-doubles, the most in the competition.
Is this enough to win a EuroLeague Women championship? For as good as Praha has been in recent years, the club hasn’t finished better than third since it won it all back in 2015, and the landscape of the competition has changed dramatically since then. There’s no question that Praha has both enough talent and enough veteran leadership to get it done during group play, but it’s been a while since that has carried over into the postseason. On paper, Praha is the second-best club in the competition. Is this the year it finally breaks through?
