BOURGES (EuroLeague Women) - The second round of the EuroLeague Women gets underway on Tuesday.
That means many players with a shot at representing their respective countries at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey will be in action.
There will be plenty of international firepower on show in the best-of-three tie between Bourges and Wisla Can-Pack Krakow.
The Polish club has travelled to France with the competition's leading scorer, and rebounder, in Tina Charles of the USA.
Last year's WNBA MVP with the Connecticut Sun has been a terror in Europe, averaging 24.1 points and 12.1 rebounds.
Wisla's 22-year-old point guard, Cristina Ouvina, is a star in the making who is in Spain's national side.
Bourges, meanwhile, boast the Olympics’ leading player, Celine Dumerc, and her fellow French international Emmeline N'dongue and Endene Miyem.
Johannah Leedham of Great Britain’s Olympic team has provided a spark for Bourges, too, since joining the team last month.
Sparta&K Moscow Region, who face Municipal Targoviste, have Isabelle Yacoubou (France), Elisa Aguilar (Spain), Seimone Augustus and Candice Dupree (both United States), and Evgeniia Beliakova, Marina Kuzina and Natalia Vieru (all Russia) in their squad.
Elena Danilochkina (Russia) and Iva Perovanovic (Montenegro) will be with their national teams at the EuroBasket Women but right now, they're leading the charge for a Nadezhda side that hosts a dangerous CCC Polkowice outfit in a second-round tie.
Polkowice has experience in Laia Palau (Spain) and Belinda Snell (Australia), and a rising star in USA hopeful Nnemkadi Ogwumike.
Ogwumike has shown everyone in Poland why she was the Rookie of the Year in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks, averaging more than 18 points and almost eight boards in the EuroLeague.
Other players who will be in action in the second round with a strong chance of playing at the FIBA World Championship for Women include Fenerbahce's Anastasiya Verameyenka (Belarus), Angel McCoughtry (USA), Galatasaray's Alba Torrens (Spain), Sylvia Fowles (USA), USK Prague's Jelena Skerovic and Jelena Dubljevic (both Montenegro), Katerina Elhotova, Ilona Burgrova and Eva Viteckova (all Czech Republic), Anael Lardy (France), Perfumerias Avenida's Marta Xargay and Lucila Pascua (Spain) and Rivas Ecopolis' Anna Cruz (Spain).
UMMC Ekaterinburg, as hosts of the EuroLeague Women Final Eight, are not playing in the second round.
They have France's Sandrine Gruda, Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird (All USA), Maria Stepanova, Anna Petrakova and Olga Arteshina (all Russia) and Silvia Dominguez (Spain).
As Turkey will host the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, Fenerbahce's Birsel Vardarli and Galatasaray's Bahar Caglar, Isil Alben and Nevriye Yilmaz (barring injury) are likely to play.
Quanitra Hollingsworth, a naturalized player from America in Turkey's Olympic squad, is also on the books of UMMC.
The USA, by virtue of their Olympic title in London, and Turkey are the only national sides with spots secured at the 16-team World Championship for Women
