The 1997 Euroleague Women was the inaugural edition of the competition, a refoundation of the FIBA Women's European Champions Cup, FIBA Europe's premier competition for women's basketball clubs. Running from 2 October 1996 to 10 April 1997, the competition was turned from a European Cup for all national champion clubs to a 16-team semi-closed championship, with champions from lower-seeded national leagues playing instead the second tier Ronchetti Cup; in addition to thirteen national champions the French, German and Italian runners-up were also granted a spot. Other than suppressing the two qualifying rounds, the competition system was the same as that of the 1996 European Cup.
Bourges Basket defeated defending champion BTV Wuppertal to become the first French team to win the competition since the European Cup's foundation in 1959.List of finals, 1959-91 in FIBA Europe's website The Final Four, which took place in Larissa, was contested by the same four teams as the previous edition's, with Ružomberok beating Pool Comense for the bronze.Results in FIBA Europe's website
Preliminary round Group A #TeamPldWLPFPA1 Pool Getafe 14 13 1 1183 9522 Valenciennes Olympic 14 11 3 1108 9923 Ružomberok 14 11 3 1093 955 4 Galatasaray 14 7 7 945 963 5 Pécs 14 5 9 976 10766 Wildcats Aschaffenburg 14 4 10 979 10177 Ahena 14 3 11 885 10638 Croatia Zagreb 14 2 12 939 1090
Group B #TeamPldWLPFPA1 Bourges 14 11 3 1035 8552 Brno 14 10 4 1155 11193 Pool Comense 14 10 4 1161 10694 Wuppertal 14 9 5 1053 957 5 Sporting Athens 14 7 7 1059 10106 Ježica 14 3 11 919 10527 Elitzur Ramla 14 3 11 963 10628 Dynamo Kyiv 14 3 11 868 1059
Quarter-finals Team #1Agg.Team #21st2nd3rdPool Getafe 0–2 Wuppertal 78–8966–89Valencienns Olympic 1–2 Pool Comense 82–7455–10868–81Bourges 2–0 Galatasaray 83–3372–68Brno 0–2 Ružomberok 59–8757–63
Final four Larissa, Greece
References