New York Liberty star Leonie Fiebich will have to be a little patient to add another championship ring to her expanding collection.
Behind a dominant 30-point effort from 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meeseman, Belgium’s women’s national basketball team ended their German counterparts’ chances at European glory with an 83-59 triumph in the quarterfinal portion of the knockout round in Greece.
Partly headlining the German effort was Fiebich, who was not immune to the quarterfinal struggles: she was 2-of-10 from the field. Germany as a whole struggled match Messeman, sinking only 19 tries on a 30 percent shooting night while the two-time WNBA All-Star sank 13-of-19 on her own to push the Belgians one step closer to defending their EuroBasket title.
Brandon Todd, NY Liberty
Fiebich, the only active New Yorker participating in the continental showcase, previously put up double-figures in scoring in each of the three pool play games that Germany hosted. In that trio, she shot 7-of-18 from three-point range and also pulled in 22 rebounds. She formed a solid spacing tandem with fellow WNBAer Luisa Geiselsöder, who is working through her own American debut with the Dallas Wings.
With Fiebich out, the Liberty have worked through their first dire stretch of the season, having dropped three of four games since she made her way overseas. New York is 9-0 when Fiebich dons seafoam this season.
“Definitely, her absence is felt. I already texted her, I was like, please come back,” Fiebich’s fellow German star Nyara Sabally said last week. “She’s such a great defender for us. She’s such a great floor spacer. It’s somebody that’s 6-5 that’s guarding the best player on the other team every night. So that will be missed for sure.”
Brandon Todd, NY Liberty
Alas for New York, Fiebich still has at least one more order of business to take care of before she returns to Brooklyn, as Germany is set to make one last run for fifth place while Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain play for the title. A fifth place would be unified Germany’s best in the EuroBasket competition since it earned its lone medal to date in 1997. Part one of that consolation trek lands on Friday when the Germans face Turkey.
Though Fiebich is done, there may be some lingering Liberty interests in the main tournament round: Spain, which dealt Germany its only loss in pool play, boasts the talents of Liberty prospect Raquel Carrera, whose draft rights were transferred to the Liberty from Atlanta in 2021.
Carrera, the highest-placed Spaniard to hear her named called at the WNBA Draft, ranks eighth among EuroBasket participants with 64 points, including 31 in Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over Czechia.