The Americas
The hope had been to finish the regular season in Puerto Rico sooner, but games continued on Tuesday and Manati started to build some momentum on Tuesday with an 89-78 win over Santurce. Teams continue to try to integrate new players while also dealing with temporary national team absences and on Wednesday, Carolina brought in Sabrina Haines to lead them in a 75-63 win over Morovis, which had brought in Kobi Thornton. Moca was hurt by national team absences on Friday in their 70-62 loss to Carolina. Sunday’s game was delayed to Monday, which could create a massive logjam for Morovis as they immediately lost their buffer to drop out of the playoffs after an 80-52 loss to Becca Tobin and Santurce.
Tatiana Gomez continued to pour in the points in Chile, starting with a 31 point effort on Saturday and then had 39 on Sunday with 18 rebounds. Her teammate Anahi Moran had a triple-double in the first game. Back on Thursday, Andrea Valdes recorded 7 steals for Sportiva Italiana.
South Korea
A new week of games started on Wednesday with Woori Bank having a surprisingly easy 83-42 win over the Blue Minx. Hana Bank had the lead at halftime on Thursday, but S-Birds controlled the rest of the game to keep them winless 70-63. The Stars did get a surprise win over BNK on Friday 62-54. Hana Bank’s struggles continued on Saturday with an 82-59 loss to the Blue Minx. Kim Dan-Bi had a triple-double for Woori Bank on Sunday in their 78-56 win over the S-Birds. The week of games ended with BNK’s 74-65 win over the Blue Minx on Monday.
Europe
With not every country in Europe fielding their national team in qualifiers this week, there were still some top divisions in action. There are certainly some hopes that Norway will choose to participate in the next qualifying cycle, but they played a full schedule in the league over the weekend and Julie McCarthy had 21 rebounds in Baerum’s trip all the way to Tromso. Kosovo’s weekend included a 42 point game for Leila Omerbasic in Penza’s big win. Cyprus also did not participate so their league was in full swing and Styliana Velinova Chenaklieva was the leading scorer with 34 points while Cassidy Mihalko had 8 steals.
The top teams playing in the Baltic League were off, but Lithuania’s domestic competition did play. Kriste Timofejeva had a triple-double in one game while Evelina Razgute had the best scoring output with a 32 point effort. Nearly every team was in action in Serbia as Dayzsha Rogan had 37 points and 8 steals in a loss while Courtney Cleveland had 31 points in her game. The statline of the week definitely came from the second division after Natasa Bucevac had 49 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, and 7 steals. Also in that league, Jelena Prvulovic had 33 points.
Turkey’s second division had a full slate of games and Tarsus now has a three game lead among teams chasing promotion as Sasha Goodlett had a 30 point outing for them. Four teams sit tied behind them after Izmit won 82-76 against the other relegated team despite Channon Fluker collecting 20 rebounds for Elazig Il Ozel Idere. Olena Stashchuk had 37 points on perfect shooting from the field for Bogazici to make them part of that chase pack. Kirklareli edged Elazig, which got 31 points from Ameryst Alston to join that group. Alanya is still well back of the leaders, but they did get 35 points from Angela Tompkins. Becca Wann-Taylor had 35 points for Barcelos in Portugal’s second division, but the team suffered its first loss. Iceland’s second division played a round on Wednesday and Chloe Wanink had 30 points for Tindastoll while Cierra Johnson had 31 points in her game in only 20 minutes.
Women's Basketball News and Opinions 