Jones And Company Take Euro League Title

Thursday, April 18, 20

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#By RENALDO DORSETT

#Tribune Sports Reporter

#rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

#JONQUEL Jones had another successful WNBA offseason as her team captured the EuroLeague women’s championship.

#Jones’ UMMC Ekaterinburg, of the Russian Premier League, won their second consecutive and fifth EuroLeague title with a 91-67 win over Dynamo Kursk in Sopron, Hungary.

#Jones appeared in eight games with 19.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. She shot 60 per cent from the field, 52 per cent from three-point range and 80 per cent from the free throw line.

#A stacked UMMC Ekaterinburg roster also included WNBA stars Brittney Griner and Courtney Vandersloot.

#Jones joined the defending Euroleague champions in the offseason following her third year with the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.

#Back in the WNBA the Sun have also reportedly exercised 4th year team options on Jones in September.

#Jones was named the 2018 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year, earning the honour as the league’s top reserve for the first time in her three-year career.

#She averaged 11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, a career-high 1.7 assists and 1.24 blocked shots per game last season.

#She tied for ninth in the WNBA in blocks and ranked fifth in field goal percentage (55.0) and second in three-point field goal percentage (46.7). With 50 three-pointers made, she surpassed her total from the previous two seasons combined (36).

#During the Sun’s 9-1 finish to the season, Jones averaged 18.5 points and 6.6 rebounds. That stretch included four games of 20 or more points.

#In the season prior, she was voted as the 2017 WNBA Most Improved Player, becomes the first player to win both the Sixth Woman and Most Improved awards.

#In honour of being named the WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year, Jones will receive $5,000 and a specially designed trophy by Tiffany and Co.

#Last offseason in China, Jones became one of the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association’s most dominant players and led her Shanxi Xing Rui Flames to a runners-up finish in the final.

#The star forward averaged a team-high 29.3 points, 18.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists over 31 games for Shanxi Xing Rui.

#In the 2016 offseason, Jones was selected No. 5 overall by Woori Bank in the Korean Basketball League and led the team to a championship title.

#On the season she averaged 15.8 points, 14.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks – all team leads – in 24 minutes per game for Woori Bank in 38 games.

#At the league’s award ceremony, Jones earned the Foreign Most Valuable Player Award, Defensive Player of the Year award and was named “Best Five” in the league.

#UMMC Ekanterinburg has won four Euroleague, 12 Russian titles and eight Russian Cups in team history. In addition to Jones, UMMC Ekanterinburg includes Brittney Griner and Kayla McBride.

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