Israeli League Round 10 December 26th
The first game of a full Monday had Kaila Charles and Hila Karsh leading Hapoel Rishon Lezion to an 87-68 win over Amy Okonkwo and Maccabi Haifa. Maccabi Ashdod trailed Kenisha Bell and Hapoel Petah Tikva at the break, but dominated the second half behind Kalani Brown to win 93-72. Danielle Adams and ASA Jerusalem found it tough to test the rest of the teams in the league again, losing 80-59 to Dor Saar, Alisia Jenkins, and Ramat Hasharon. Elitzur Holon decided to go ahead and play Jennie Simms in her first domestic league game of the season and she led them past Herzliya 82-58. Maccabi Ramat Gan managed to edge Elitzur Ramla 65-61 despite not having their replacement import in the lineup yet.
http://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4417
Hapoel Rishon Lezion [87]: Charles 22/10r/9a Karsh 22 Zipel 14/9r Simon 14/7r Hooper 8/12r
Maccabi Haifa [68]: Okonkwo 20/9r Lev 18 Bulgak 10/8r Hopkins 8/8a
http://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4415
Maccabi Ashdod [93]: Brown 28/7r Cohen 16/8a Edelman 13/7r Walker-Kimbrough 12/12r Hiedeman 7/8r/8a Dayan 6 Sahar 3
Hapoel Petah Tikva [72]: Bell 23 Cowling 18/6r Bellock 12 Purvis 5 Snow 0
http://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4413
ASA Jerusalem [59]: Adams 21/14r Wurtz 18 Turudic 14/9r
Ramat Hasharon [80]: Saar 23/6a Jenkins 22/19r Jones 14/7a Collier 13/10r Deluty 0
http://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4416
Elitzur Holon [82]: Simms 30/14r Hurt 18/10r Harden 18 Raber 10/11r/7a Presley 0
Bnot Herzliya [58]: Day 18/11r Amukamara 17 Richardson 12/8r Zambrotta 3 Shea 2
http://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4414
Elitzur Ramla [61]: Austin 14/13r Baron 14/7r Babkina 13 Cannon 11/7r Fleischer 4/7r Danan 3
Maccabi Ramat Gan [65]: Alleyne 19/16r Brown 17/10r/7a Vaturi 14/9r Abboud 0
World of Basketball
Asia
The final week before a break in South Korea started on Wednesday with the Blue Minx winning 78-62 over Hana Bank. On Thursday, the Stars were not quite ready to take on the top team yet as they lost to Woori Bank 79-66. The Blue Minx had an easy 82-58 win over the S-Birds on Friday. BNK won 74-56 against Hana Bank on Saturday. Sunday’s game was a thriller that went into double overtime and the Stars getting a triple-double from Kang Lee-Seul and Park Ji-Su being able to play heavy minutes still left them short against the S-Birds 84-79. Kim Dan-Bi had a triple-double on Monday in a clash of the top two teams that Woori Bank won 72-60 over the Blue Minx.
In Japan, the Vickies had too many virus cases to play against the Sunflowers, but the rest of the weekend was played as scheduled. There are no undefeated teams anymore after the Iris were handed their first loss. Two players scored 31 points in a game as Minami Shirasaki did so to maintain her scoring title lead and Drame Mareme Ndoye helped her team win in overtime. Virus cases have had a bigger effect on China, which had its league completely stop play for now.
Around Europe
There is one game left in the first stage of Adriatic play. Buducnost won Group B by three games while the two Bosnian teams finished at the bottom of the standings. The united Albania-Kosovo competition hit the halfway point with an exciting game that saw Taliyah Hopkins lift Bashkimi to a 95-93 win over Tirana with a 31 point effort. Crvena zvezda had quite a week in Serbia, winning their big rivalry game against Partizan and then handing Kraljevo its first loss to take over first place. Rivalry was a theme in Greece too as the cup quarterfinals were played and Panathinaikos knocked out Olympiacos 66-60. The halfway point has been reached in Germany and Rheinland Lions is trying to complete the rise that they started last season with a two game lead. Hannah Little had a 34 point game for Freiburg, but the defending champions have struggled so far.
Chase for Promotion
The halfway point has been reached in the Turkish second division and Tarsus won narrowly against the reserve team of Botas to maintain a solid lead in the standings. Also this weekend, Kirklareli needed every last one of Aliyah Maczyk’s 37 points to win while Ameryst Alston had a 38 point game for Elazig. Topolcanka continues to hold a lead in Serbia’s second division as the two teams behind them faced off and Rudar was able to defeat Proleter without playing their bench even one second. Jelena Cukarovic had a 30 point game while 34 points from Natasa Bucevac was not enough to get her team a win. In Italy’s second division, Battipaglia sits at the top of the tiebreaker in the south after Raffaella Potolicchio scored 32 points in their latest win. The last two undefeated teams in the north played with Scrivia defeating Milano and they will play third place Udine after the break. Christina Morra, who is now playing for her third team in her first professional season, had 33 points in Carugate’s win.
Notable Individual Performances
It was a light schedule in Sweden, but Tay Sanders had 21 rebounds in an overtime win for Eos. Vanda Kristlova grabbed 23 boards for Young Angels Kosice in Slovakia. Milica Matic had 32 points in her game in Montenegro, but it was not enough for a Novi win. In Luxembourg, Tatsiana Likhtarovich had a triple-double while her Esch teammate Kourtni Perry had 24 rebounds. Reili Richardson had 30 points as she was one of a number of players in Finland who were close to a triple-double. Niya Mitchell continues to have a fantastic season in the Bosnian league, but another 39 points was not enough for her team to win. Ivana Dakovic had 31 points in her game while Andela Demirovic had 22 rebounds. In Armenia, Lillian Brown had a 22 point, 27 rebounds, 10 assist triple-double.
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