The Americas
Puerto Rico was supposed to have all teams in action on Tuesday, but a postponement affected the schedule again and the rest of the games were unusual too. Lares was the only team to use all of their restricted roster spots, but lost to Moca 78-68. Manati was down a player and brought in Kelsey Bone for Adaora Elonu and won 81-52 over Carolina. Morovis was able to play on Wednesday and won 73-58 over Lares despite being down a player. Stephanie Watts made her debut for Santurce in the roster spot previously occupied by Aishah Sutherland and won 74-52 over Carolina, which did actually roll out a full lineup with Alliya Butts after having had a few games since Akilah Bethel was on the roster. Lares ran out of chances to get out of last place after losing to Santurce 76-74 on Friday. Destinee Walker moved into the roster spot that has been a revolving door for Carolina, but they still lost 70-66 to a Manati team missing their star. Moca was down a player too and were taken to overtime against full strength Morovis and ran out of steam in a 77-74 loss despite a fantastic game from Alexis Jennings. Manati is losing the gap that they built on the other teams in the standings and lost to Santurce 69-66 on Sunday, but integrating Akilah Bethel into the spot that was Kaela Davis’s could help down the stretch.
A busy week in Chile included a 24 rebound game for Tatiana Gomez and 6 steals from Darling Diaz. Javiera Novion had 6 steals in one game and then followed it up with 33 points.
South Korea
A new week started in South Korea with a 75-50 win for Woori Bank over hapless Hana Bank on Wednesday. The S-Birds defeated the Blue Minx 87-61 on Thursday. Woori Bank’s fast start on Friday meant a 74-52 win over the Stars. Kim Roberson was fantastic for BNK on Saturday in an 80-66 win over Hana Bank. Bae Hye-Yoon had a fantastic game for the Blue Minx on Sunday in a 76-69 win over the Stars. BNK’s strong start continued with an 82-65 win over the S-Birds on Monday.
The Quest for Promotion
Tarsus continues to lead in the Turkish second division as Sasha Goodlett had 33 points in their win. Also in the league, Olena Stashchuk had 6 blocks, Angela Tompkins had 36 points, and Basak Altunbay had 30 points. The schedule has been uneven in group A of the Spanish third division, but this week did have a 6 steal game for Eugenia Filgueira and a 23 rebound game for Tereza Sedlakova. In group B, Castello and Viladecans are currently tied with 7-1 records, but the big game came at the other end of the standings with Maria Lineira scoring 31 points. Portugal’s second division was mostly quiet, but Kyaja Williams had 7 steals along with 29 points and 16 rebounds. Some of the teams played cup games and Becca Wann-Taylor may have had her most ridiculous game yet this season with 50 points, 27 rebounds, and 7 assists for good measure. In Italy’s second division, Stefania Guarneri had 22 rebounds while Allegra Botteghi had 35 points with the only clear leader in either division right now being Empoli in the southern division. In Iceland’s second division, Dilja Larusdottir had a season high 36 points while a strong individual matchup had a 22 rebound effort from Maddie Sutton offset a 30 point outing from Chloe Wanink and another battle with strong efforts on both sides had young Emma Hakonardottir with 30 points while Violet Morrow had 31 points.
Notable Individual Performances
As usual, there were big statlines from around Europe this week. Loreta Sulimaite had 9 steals in Lithuania, but her team lost a close game. In Ukraine, everyone involved continues to do what they can to make sure as many games can be played as scheduled as possible. Young Maria Pugach had an impressive game in a loss for Cherkasy with 24 rebounds. Tatyana Bashtova reached the 21 rebound mark while Nadia Teleshyk was the week’s leading scorer with 35 points. Another good story continues in Sweden as Aquira DeCosta sits in the lead for both scoring and rebounding at the break, helped by grabbing 30 boards in her last game.
Triple-doubles were recorded in Norway this week by Tori Halvorsen and Henriette Hofermann. Binnenland needed pretty much all of Marlou De Kleijn’s 34 points to win in the Netherlands. Marija Lekovic had 8 steals for Buducnost as they won a domestic league game in Montenegro 124-30. Arbnore Perquku had a triple-double in Kosovo. The two biggest scoring outputs in Iceland’s top division came in the same game with Aliyah Collier having 30 points in Njardvik’s win over Fjolnir, which got 31 points from Taylor Jones. The story of the day in Greece may have been the first big rivalry game with Olympiacos winning, but the biggest game was from Valerie Higgins with 35 points for Esperides Kallitheas. Triple-doubles were also the story in Finland as Reili Richardson and Raziyah Farrington had them while Kati Ollilainen dished out 16 assists. Cassidy Mihalko had a 31 point game in Cyprus and Sabreen Muslim had a 34 point game in Croatia. In Bosnia, Niya Mitchell had 33 points, 19 rebounds, and 9 steals.
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