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The Hatis official website said on Monday Ivana Podrug from Croatia and Olympia Scott from the United States had already arrived in Yerevan and were preparing for the team’s next Euro League game later this week.

“Our newcomers are quite experienced players… We hope that they will strengthen Hatis,” said the team’s head coach Gia Ghazanchyan, as quoted by the website (www.hatis.am).

California-born Scott, 34, played in the WNBA until 2007. She also has played in Russia and in Turkey, and has been a college coach.

Podrug, 26, played for Zagreb (Croatia) and a number of basketball teams in eastern Europe. Her career also included spells at Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Greece’s BC Larissa.

Bringing more international basketball to Yerevan on November 4, Armenia’s revived basketball club, however, gave few reasons for the local fans to cheer suffering their second straight defeat in FIBA’s 2010/2011 Euro Cup a European tournament – losing to Elitzur Ramla (Israel) 82-69.

Earlier, in the opening game of the tournament late last month Hatis also lost in an away game to the other Group F rival Dynamo GUVD - 79-50.

Hatis, which still preserves chances to qualify for playoffs, is due to host the Novosibirsk club on November 18 and then travel to Israel for the last game in the group stage on November 25.

Head coach Ghazanchyan said Hatis’ main center player Erica Davis will not be able to play in this week’s game against Dynamo-GUVD.

“It would’ve been very difficult without her, and so we quickly began our selection work. Olympia Scott -- 6-2, 175 - plays in the center’s position,” the head coach added.

Hatis, which played at a high level in USSR competitions, returned from nearly two decades of sporting obscurity last year. The Yerevan side provided a sensation by passing a successful qualification in its first-ever major European tournament -- in 2009/2010 European Cup qualifying -- and was stopped only at the playoff stage.

While preserving a number of players from last year’s squad, Hatis this year has several newcomers, including U.S.-Armenian Christine Kepenekian (who acquired Armenian citizenship and has played for the country’s national team), naturalized American Quianna Chaney, Canadian Kaela Chapdelaine, Croatian Martina Zubak and others.