Israeli League Round 12 January 8th-9th
The round started with a Sunday game as Ramat Hasharon had their whole import trio of Alisia Jenkins, Charli Collier, and Jazmine Jones firing while Hapoel Petah Tikva, which was led by Kenisha Bell, made a roster change before the game and lost 94-67. A fantastic Monday game had Maccabi Ashdod missing a key player so Adut Bulgak and Amy Okonkwo tried to press the advantage in the post for Maccabi Haifa, which also got a triple-double from Chelsea Hopkins, but Shatori Walker-Kimbrough helped the hosts force overtime and then win 88-84 to stay perfect. ASA Jerusalem was looking for a win with Maccabi Ramat Gan down an import, but Jaime Nared and Jillian Alleyne did enough for the visitors to leave with a 72-65 victory. Kaila Charles lifted Hapoel Rishon Lezion past Jennie Simms and Elitzur Holon 84-78. Being down their center did not help Herzliya in their game against Shakira Austin and Elitzur Ramla and they lost 75-62.
January 8
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4425
Ramat Hasharon [94]: Jenkins 23/17r Collier 21/10r Jones 20/7r/8a Kesten-Rez 11 Karsh 11 Deluty 3 Saar 3
Hapoel Petah Tikva [67]: Bell 21/8a Bone 19/7r Cowling 10/10r Hadad 10 Purvis 3
January 9
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4427
Maccabi Ashdod [88]: Walker-Kimbrough 22/6r Hiedeman 19/6a/7a Sahar 13 Yizchaki 12/7r/8a Edelman 10/6r Dayan 7 Cohen 5/9r
Maccabi Haifa [84]: Bulgak 29/13r Okonkwo 26/9r Lev 13 Hopkins 10/10r/13a/6s
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4424
ASA Jerusalem [65]: Wurtz 17 Adams 15/9r Turudic 15/6r/8s
Maccabi Ramat Gan [72]: Nared 21/10r/9a Alleyne 17/22r Shalom 11 Abboud 6
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4423
Hapoel Rishon Lezion [84]: Charles 36/6r/6a Zipel 17 Simon 14/10r Karsh 11 Hooper 3/7r
Elitzur Holon [78]: Simms 33/8r Hurt 18 Raber 13/14r Harden 12
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=5369
Bnot Herzliya [62]: Richardson 19/12r Amukamara 19 Shea 0 Zambrotta 0
Elitzur Ramla [75]: Austin 21/12r Clark 11/8r Rotberg 10 Babkina 9/6a Baron 9 Cannon 5/7r Danan 3 Fleischer 2/9r
World of Basketball
Asia
The week in South Korea started with the conclusion of the competition designed to give bench and young players more playing time as the Blue Minx finished 4-1 in the round-robin to win. The All-Star game was played on Sunday with some fun rules as the top scorers switched teams during the game. Jin An’s 20 early points gave Blue the lead and then she had a second half double-double to get Pink the 98-92 win and herself the MVP honors. Kang Lee-Seul had 25 points for Pink and then 17 points for Blue and also won the three-point contest. Japan experienced no further schedule disruptions this weekend. The league in Taiwan started their regular season over the weekend after a preseason round-robin tournament. The four teams play at a single site with doubleheaders each gameday. Cathay Life and Taiyuan Textile won both of their games while Taiwan Power and Chunghwa Telecom are winless ahead of their matchup in the next round.
Around Europe
The league in Ukraine is in the middle of a long break, but Frankivsk continued their play in the European League as they hit the road again. Their first stop was Klapeida, Lithuania where they won 90-82 over Neptunas on Thursday. The next game was in Riga on Saturday and they won 67-50. The second legs of the cup quarterfinals were played in Slovenia and Triglav eliminated Krka, the last team from outside the top division. The double round-robin is almost complete in Slovakia with the league already being split in two halves since the last game will have no effect and Piestanske Cajky leads the top half heading into this double round-robin. In Great Britain, Essex hosted the entire Round of 16 of the BBL Trophy, which ended up with no upsets with Karly Murphy grabbing a weekend-high 20 rebounds.
Chase for Promotion
Roster changes and issues with Karsiyaka are affecting Turkey’s second division, but Tarsus continues to hold a clear lead. The biggest individual efforts happened in the same game as Ameryst Alston had 44 points to lead Elazig to an 83-75 win over Turgutlu, which got 30 points from Tearra Banks. The lower divisions in Spain returned from a holiday break and Castello lost in their group in the third division, but they still hold a two game lead on the five teams right behind them. 41 points and 25 rebounds from Becca Wann-Taylor was not enough for Barcelos to retain the lead in the North zone of the second division in Portugal as they lost in overtime. Gabriellem Paula had 26 rebounds in her game while a wild game had Carolina Anacleto dishing out 16 assists in the win even though Blair Ripley had 31 points and Candela Foresto had 30 points on the other side. Both groups in Italy’s second division have three-way ties at the top after Udine handed Scrivia their first loss in the North. Debora Gonzalez had 30 points in Matelica’s loss. Iceland’s second division returned from their break and Jayla Johnson had 31 points in her professional debut while Emese Vida grabbed 20 rebounds. Charnay has the clear lead in the French second division now after winning against Feytiat. Maaja Bratka had the round’s biggest scoring game with 30 points. Tori Waldner had a 30 point game in Bamberg’s win in the southern portion of Germany’s second division while Shomari Harris hit 30 points in Lichterfelde’s game in the north..
Notable Individual Performances
A game in Lithuania featured two players with 9 steals as Loreta Sulimaite needed another theft and another assist to record a quadruple-double while Olga Fomina just missed out on a triple-double. Ruth Sherrill had 33 points in her first game in Slovakia for Slavia Banska Bystrica. In Norway, Tayler Bennett had a 32 point game while Vilde Havnes hit the 30 point mark. Aliyah Collier has had plenty of big scoring games in Iceland and had a 20 rebound game in her latest outing. Carmen Tyson-Thomas had 33 points in Finland and Roosa Lehtoranta had 31 points, but the notable number might be Taru Tuukkanen playing her first game as a 45 year old looking to get the triple-double that she has been close to multiple times this season. Carlie Littlefield had a 31 point game in Belgium. Big games in Austria have not been that common, but Nina Krisper had 35 points in Graz’s win.
As usual, there were plenty of big games in Luxembourg. LeLe Grissett grabbed 23 rebounds for Soleuvre as Mikayla Ferenz had 30 points for their opponents. A game with championship implications saw Faith Etute grab 20 rebounds for Diddeleng, but Grengewald Hueschtert finished filling their roster and got 36 points from Dejza James to win. 31 points from Tatsiana Likhtarovich was not enough for Esch to win. Kierra Anthony had 31 points and Amanda Cahill had a triple-double in Residence Walferdange’s win.
Ecuador’s league continued after a holiday break and one of the games on Saturday went to overtime. Daniela Mora grabbed 23 defensive rebounds, but Santa Maris still lost to Real Bolivar 75-69.
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