Griffin on Brink of EuroBasketball Crown

Former Nebraska All-American Kelsey Griffin is putting the finishing touches on an outstanding first season of professional basketball.

The 2010 Big 12 Player of the Year has led her MiZo Pecs 2010 team to a 23-1 record and a spot in the Hungarian A League championship series. The Hungarian A League is a premier league in EuroBasketball, featuring many WNBA stars.

In MiZo Pecs' most recent game in the championship series with MKB Euroleasing, the 6-2 forward from Eagle River, Alaska, erupted for a game-high 24 points while adding seven rebounds in a 78-68 victory to put MiZo Pecs up 2-0 in the best-of-five series. MKB Euroleasing includes WNBA players Marissa Coleman and Amber Holt.

Griffin, a member of the 2010 WNBA All-Rookie Team with the Connecticut Sun after being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft, has averaged 14.2 points per game. MiZo Pecs can capture the league crown with a win over MKB on Sunday.

Griffin is set to return to the Connecticut Sun for the 2011 WNBA season. Exhibition play for the Sun tips off on May 19, while regular-season action for the Sun is set to begin Saturday, June 4.

Griffin's road to a EuroBasketball postseason league championship went through former Husker teammate Danielle Page's ZTE team. Griffin's squad defeated Page's team, 2-0, in a best-of-five series.

Page, who spent the 2008 WNBA season as a member of the Connecticut Sun, was a star in the Hungarian A League this season. The 6-2 forward from Monument, Colo., led the league in scoring and blocked shots with 18.0 points and 2.0 blocks per game. She also finished third in the league with 9.2 rebounds per contest.

While Griffin's championship series is winding down, 2010 first-team All-Big 12 teammate at Nebraska Yvonne Turner opens the DBBL championships series on Friday, April 15, as a leader for her Freiburg team in Germany. Turner poured in 27 points to lead Freiburg past regular-season champion Marburg, 89-68, last time out to claim a series win and a spot in the league championship series against Wasserburg.

Turner, a 5-8 guard from Omaha, ranks second in the DBBL in scoring with 17.4 points per game on the year while ranking eighth in the league with 2.2 steals per game.

A third first-team All-Big 12 Husker in 2010, Cory Montgomery, has also enjoyed a successful first season in Europe. The 6-2 forward from Cannon Falls, Minn., has averaged 9.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 25 games for Moguerza Real Canoe N.C. in the Liga Feminina-2 in Spain.

Montgomery was a third-round pick of the New York Liberty in the 2010 WNBA Draft before beginning her professional career in Spain.