Israeli League Round 13 January 18th-23rd
A game from Round 9 moved for the cup was made up on Wednesday and Eden Rotberg and Shakira Austin led Elitzur Ramla to an 87-68 win over Alisia Jenkins and Ramat Hasharon. This round started on Sunday and ASA Jerusalem stunned Courtney Hurt and Elitzur Holon behind Danielle Adams and Taylor Wurtz. Monday started with a fun game that saw Kaila Charles have a fantastic effort for Hapoel Rishon Lezion, but Natisha Hiedeman and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough led Maccabi Ashdod to a 91-80 win. Hapoel Petah Tikva finished a lineup change, but it was not enough as they lost to Jillian Alleyne and Maccabi Ramat Gan 88-52. Maccabi Haifa was coming off a tough loss and missing a key player, but still managed an impressive 73-61 win over Elitzur Ramla. Jazmine Jones paced Ramat Hasharon in a 71-58 win over Briana Day and Herzliya.
January 18
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4412
Elitzur Ramla [87]: Rotberg 23 Austin 21/8r Cannon 11/8r Clark 8 Babkina 7 Fleischer 4/6r Baron 4 Danan 3
Ramat Hasharon [68]: Jenkins 22/15r Jones 15/8r Saar 8 Collier 5 Deluty 2
January 22
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4428
Elitzur Holon [76]: Hurt 25/16r Simms 14/9r/11a Raber 11 Presley 11 Harden 6
ASA Jerusalem [79]: Adams 31/13r Wurtz 26/7r Turudic 16/8r/11a
January 23
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4429
Hapoel Rishon Lezion [80]: Charles 37/9r Zipel 19 Hooper 10/6r Simon 3/8r
Maccabi Ashdod [91]: Hiedeman 28/6r Walker-Kimbrough 23/9r Cohen 15 Edelman 10/7r Dayan 7 Brown 4 Sahar 3
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4432
Hapoel Petah Tikva [52]: Bone 18/14r Muldrow 10/13r Purvis 9 Bell 8
Maccabi Ramat Gan [88]: Alleyne 26/16r Nared 15/9r/7a Brown 15/10a/7s Vaturi 14/8r Shalom 10 Abboud 2
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4430
Maccabi Haifa [73]: Bulgak 19/14r Singer 13 Lev 12 Hopkins 11/9r/9a
Elitzur Ramla [61]: Baron 13 Clark 11/7r Cannon 11 Austin 5/9r/6a Fleischer 2 Babkina 2 Danan 0
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=4431
Bnot Herzliya [58]: Day 20/15r Zambrotta 16 Amukamara 12 Richardson 8 Shea 0
Ramat Hasharon [71]: Jones 22/6r Jenkins 19/16r Collier 18/10r Saar 11 Deluty 0
World of Basketball
Asia
Four games were played in South Korea this week before a New Year’s break. Kim Jin-Young was impressive on Wednesday as the S-Birds were able to fend off Woori Bank 81-78. It was an even bigger surprise on Thursday when Hana Bank won 65-56 against the Blue Minx. The Stars edged BNK 62-61 on Friday and the S-Birds defeated Hana Bank 71-57 on Saturday. Japan played a full set of games over the weekend before another break as the games that had virus postponements are scheduled to be made up during that time.
Around Europe
Only two regular season games remain in the European league after Riga hosted three more games this weekend. Riga Stradins University defeated Ostrava on Saturday while Dalia Donskichyte led Neptunas past Riga 89-83 in the other game. Neptunas then won on Sunday 67-54 over Ostrava. In the Adriatic, Celje handed Buducnost their first loss to move to the top of the tie at the top of the standings. Andzelika Mitrasinovic had a second straight triple-double for Montana while Shereen Sunderland grabbed 20 rebounds. The second half of the season started in the Albania-Kosovo unified competition and the highlight was a 21 point, 15 rebound, 10 assist triple-double for Sarah Mgbeike. In Kosovo’s domestic league, Khadija Brown-Haywood scored 32 points and Alyn Sankar scored 31 points.
The league resumed in Ukraine with Frankivsk hosting three other teams for the weekend so that four games could be played. After the double round-robin concluded in Slovenia last weekend, the second stage of play started and Celje’s lead extended after Ilirija lost to Triglav in their opener. Piestanske Cajky won the final of the cup in Slovakia 82-57 over Slavia Banska Bystrica. The federation cup was played in Portugal and Benfica was the team to win 3 games in 3 days to hoist the trophy.
The Chase for Promotion
There were no new standings implications after this round of play in Turkey’s second division, but Zakyia Weathersby did have a 32 point effort. Miralvalle extended their lead by a game in the loss column in their group of Spain’s third division. There were several big individual efforts in Serbia’s second division as Marija Cvijovic had 31 points, Tamara Jokic had 37 points, and Natasa Bucevac reached the 45 point mark. Hannah Armour and Candela Foresto each reached the 32 point mark in Portugal’s second division. Empoli’s loss in the southern half of Italy’s second division dropped them into a tie where they still hold the tiebreaker for first place. Young Gloria Offor had a 22 rebound game for Matelica. There were plenty of big statlines in Iceland’s second division as Maddie Sutton had 26 rebounds, Violet Morrow had 31 points, and Dilja Larusdottir had 35 points in a win while Jayla Johnson had 36 points and Emese Vida had 24 rebounds on the other side. Lara Langermann had a 32 point game in Germany’s second division. Chatres defeated Feytiat to pull even with them in France’s second division, giving Charnay a bigger lead at the top of the standings.
Notable Individual Performances
Two rounds of games were played in Switzerland this week and Maria Mongomo had a 21 point, 16 rebound, 11 assist triple-double in a narrow win for Pully. Dragana Gobeljic had 32 points for Serbian league leaders Kraljevo. There were a few big statlines in Norway as Tayler Bennett had 32 points and Stine Austgulen had 30 points. There was plenty of scoring in one game in Montenegro as Jelena Vucetic had a 34 point, 16 rebound, and 10 assist triple-double and Aleksandra Muzevic added 30 points for Novi while Milena Jaksic had 31 points in a losing effort for Niksic. Anna Zvirgzdina had 22 rebounds in a domestic league game in Latvia. Aliyah Collier and Kiana Johnson had triple-doubles in Iceland while Sanja Orozovic had 32 points. Zada Williams had a 30 point, 22 rebound effort for PAOK in Greece. Two rounds of games were played in Finland with the big individual games coming over the weekend as Carmen Tyson-Thomas had 32 points and Ilmar’I Thomas had 39 points. Jelena Ivezic scored 33 points in Croatia while Viktoria Ivanova had 32 points in Bulgaria and Amna Isakovic had 30 points in the Bosnian league. Camilla Neumann poured in 41 points in Austria. Play resumed after the break in Armenia and Shelle Daniels had a 25 rebound game.
There were a number of big statlines in Sweden on Saturday. Klara Lundquist and Louice Halvarsson each reached the 30 point mark for Sodertalje, Oceana Hamilton grabbed 22 rebounds for Uppsala, and Brooklyn Pannell had 32 points, but just missed a triple-double. Two rounds of games were played in Luxembourg this week and that led to plenty of big games. Jade Compton had 32 points in one game while her teammate LeLe Grissett had 31 points in another. Tatsiana Likhtarovich followed up a 32 point game with a 20 point, 14 rebound, 12 assist triple-double in a game that saw her teammate Morgan Pullins score 33 points and Faith Etute grab 21 rebounds on the other side. Esmeralda Skrijelj had a 13 point, 24 rebound, 10 assist triple-double, Julie Brosseau had a 31 point game, and Jannon Otto reached the 36 point mark.
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