World of Basketball June 9th

Americas

The regular season concluded in Brazil this week and there were three games on Monday. Santo Andre defeated Catanduva, Blumenau escaped Corinthians, and Sampaio got past Ituano. Mesquita won at Sao Jose on Wednesday. The last day of the regular season was Friday and Sampaio opened the day with a win over Campinas. Two teams put on a show with Ta’Sharra Jeffries scoring 36 points in a Corinthians win over Ponta Grossa, which got 37 points from Giovanna Carey. Santo Andre defeated Mesquita and Ituano got the better of Araraquara.

All the series in Mexico were on a Thursday-Friday schedule this week and Tamaulipas was the first team to complete their sweep over Irapuato. Veracruz withstood back-to-back 31 point games from Sara Dickey to sweep Leon. San Luis Potosi salvaged a split against Xalapa as they look to climb out of the cellar. Chihuahua handed Monterrey their first loss, but could not complete the sweep to be all alone in first place.

Puerto Rico’s secondary competition had their first full week, including a good game on Thursday between two established clubs that saw Lesiriam Pagan grab 20 rebounds in Ponce’s win. Pagan grabbed another 20 boards on Saturday in an easy Ponce win.

Australia

The holiday weekend altered some schedules in NBL1 with the Central conference taking a break. The South conference had all of their games on Thursday and Friday and Cierra DIllard opened proceedings with 30 points in a Melbourne Tigers win. Stephanie Reid had 33 points to lead the Frankston Blues to a win.

In the East conference, two games were played between a pair of teams from the Australian Capital Territory. The youngsters of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence won the home game on Thursday behind 35 points from Monique Bobongie. They also won when they visited the Canberra Nationals on Friday.

Queensland does not observe the holiday until later in the year so the North conference had a full weekend. Even though the Northern Territory does observe the holiday, the Darwin Salties had to make a tough road trip, including losing to the undefeated Northside Wizards, who were led by AJ Johnson’s 32 points. Taylor Mole had an incredible performance for the Mackay Meteorettes on Friday with a 49 point outburst. Mikaela Ruef had a 23 point, 17 rebound, and 10 assist triple-double for the North Gold Seahawks. Mia Loyd had a 32 points for the Cairns Dolphins, but they are still searching for their first win.

Western Australia also celebrates the holiday later in the year so the West conference had a regular schedule this weekend. The Rockingham Flames lost their first game of the season, losing to the Lakeside Lightning, which got 31 points from Teige Morrell and 30 points from Marnelle Garraud. The Lightning were also impressive the previous day, edging the Perth Redbacks, which got 24 rebounds from Anneli Maley, behind 32 points from Morrell. One of the most exciting games of the weekend came early with the East Perth Eagles prevailing in double overtime over the Joondalup Wolves thanks to 34 points and 20 rebounds from Mary Baskerville.

The championship was decided in North West Tasmania this week starting with Tuesday’s game to determine who else would advance to the final. Tayla Roberts had 23 rebounds for the Latrobe Demons and the top seed was able to get past the Penguin Blues. It was Roberts controlling the boards again in the final on Friday with 20 rebounds and the Demons defeated the Devonport Warriors to avenge their earlier playoff loss.