Turkish League Round 23 March 17th-20th
One game in this round was moved for continental play, but it started on Friday with an overtime game that had Botas come back behind Aysegul Gunay and Kathleen Doyle to get past Shavonte Zellous, Tan White and Cankaya University. The first game on Saturday was between struggling teams who are now back to utilizing all of their foreign player spots and it was Kayseri winning 61-57 to move into a safe position and leave Antalya at the bottom of the tiebreaker. Marie Benson and Rize came up short in their effort to move a game clear of danger as Orman was able to find a player quickly for their new vacancy and Reshanda Gray led them to a 75-72 win. Bursa is not quite above the fray yet as Channon Fluker had a good game, but they lost to Nesibe Aydin 87-68. Teaira McCowan and Galatasaray closed out the day with a 90-68 win over Nirra Fields and company. Besiktas was down a player on Monday, but Dana Evans kept them competitive against a Fenerbahce team fielding a more experimental lineup before Satou Sabally helped the visitors defeat their other city rivals 90-72.
March 17
https://tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl-2022-2023/mac-detay/162654/istatistik
Cankaya Universitesi [82]: Zellous 22/11r/6a White 22/7r Cora 15/7r Ugur 13 Yalcinkaya 0
Botas [88]: Gunay 21 Doyle 20 Macaulay 14/11r Uzun 11/11a McCall 9/10r
March 18
https://tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl-2022-2023/mac-detay/162657/istatistik
Antalya [57]: Fitzgerald 17/9a Wells 16 Hillsman 14/10r
Kayseri [61]: Mokango 16/11r Sonmez 15/8r Weaver 12/9r Landrum 9/7a
https://tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl-2022-2023/mac-detay/162651/istatistik
Rize [72]: Benson 20 Brown 16/15r/7a Ozcan 13/6r Morgan 10/7r
Orman [75]: Gray 24/10r Thomas 17/8r Jones 8/6r Ozelci 3
https://tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl-2022-2023/mac-detay/162656/istatistik
Nesibe Aydin [87]: Nelson 13/8r Hempe 12/6r Akalan 12 Thomas 12 Guner 12 Yaya 10
Bursa [68]: Fluker 31/22r Carter 13
https://tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl-2022-2023/mac-detay/162655/istatistik
Galatasaray [90]: McCowan 26/13r Nacickaite 18/7r Bilgic 12 Stevens 11/6r Prince 9/6a Tanacan 0
Emlak Konut [68]: Fields 21 Lavender 17/6r Walker 5
March 20
https://tbf.org.tr/ligler/kbsl-2022-2023/mac-detay/162653/istatistik
Besiktas [72]: Evans 28/7a Billings 18/11r Bayram 13/14r Imren 11
Fenerbahce [90]: Sabally 28/13r Vandersloot 19/7r/12a Meesseman 17 Stokes 0/9r Cakir 0
Israeli League 2nd Stage March 20th
Upper Group:
Play continued on Monday with Maccabi Ashdod bouncing back from recent struggles after Shatori Walker-Kimbrough led them to an 88-67 win over Alisia Jenkins and Ramat Hasharon. A game between two teams still needing to lock up playoff spots went to overtime and Jillian Alleyne and Jaime Nared helped Maccabi Ramat Gan finish their comeback and win 74-71 over Amy Okonkwo and Maccabi Haifa. Elitzur Ramla was down to one person to occupy an import slot so Jennifer Fleischer picked up the slack on the boards, but their hopes of the top seed ended after an 82-61 loss to Kaila Charles and Hapoel Rishon Lezion.
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6382
Maccabi Ashdod [88]: Walker-Kimbrough 26/6r/8a Cambage 16/14r Hiedeman 15/6r Edelman 14 Dayan 10 Cohen 7/6r/6a Sahar 0
Ramat Hasharon [67]: Jenkins 23/11r Collier 13/7r Jones 13 Saar 10 Deluty 0
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6381
Maccabi Ramat Gan [74]: Alleyne 25/16r Nared 23/12r Vaturi 13 Brown 4/10a Abboud 0
Maccabi Haifa [71]: Okonkwo 26/12r Eisner 14/7r Bulgak 12/10r Hopkins 4/6a
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6383
Elitzur Ramla [61]: Clark 19/6r Fleischer 16/22r Babkina 15/8a Danan 2 Baron 0
Hapoel Rishon Lezion [82]: Charles 26/10r/6a Zipel 19/7r Hooper 16/11r Simon 10/13r
Standings:
1. Maccabi Ashdod 17-5
2. Elitzur Ramla 15-7
3. Maccabi Ramat Gan 14-8
4. Ramat Hasharon 13-9
5. Maccabi Haifa 13-9
6. Hapoel Rishon Lezion 13-9
Lower Group:
The halfway point in this group was reached Monday and Alex Harden and Elitzur Holon being in a safe position could mean that they will gift a few wins to the other teams and Kelsey Bone and Hapoel Petah Tikva were the beneficiaries of a 74-72 win. Taylor Wurtz and Danielle Adams led ASA Jerusalem to a 93-74 win, leaving Herzliya alone at the bottom of the standings.
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6385
Hapoel Petah Tikva [74]: Bone 24/9r Muldrow 15/10r Bell 14/8r/7a Hadad 11 Purvis 7
Elitzur Holon [72]: Harden 23/7r Hurt 18/13r Simms 16/6a Presley 2
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6384
ASA Jerusalem [93]: Wurtz 31/12r/9a Adams 26/17r Turudic 16/6r/6s Avi 10
Bnot Herzliya [74]: Nyingifa 18/12r Richardson 18/8r Amukamara 18/7r/13a Azouri 14 Shea 1 Zambrotta 0
Standings:
1. Elitzur Holon 8-13
2. ASA Jerusalem 6-15
3. Hapoel Petah Tikva 5-16
4. Bnot Herzliya 4-17
World of Basketball
Asia
The other semifinals series in South Korea also ended in a sweep with BNK’s 81-70 win over the Blue Minx on Tuesday. The every other day, best of five finals started on Sunday with Woori Bank’s 62-56 win over BNK. The regular season concluded in Japan and Iris completed the final weekend sweep of the Antelopes to take the top seed in the playoffs. Minami Shirasaki had a 32 point game while Haruka Koike had a triple-double among the top individual efforts. Another weekend of games in Taiwan saw Cathay Life tie Taiyuan Textile in the standings ahead of another matchup before the end of the regular season. The regular season finished in Kazakhstan as Tamara Kuzmina had a 30 point game on the final day. Turan finished undefeated and are looking to keep that going when the playoffs start with the quarterfinals.
Australia
Another week in NBL1 East saw Ashlee Hannan grab 22 rebounds as she has had a strong return to basketball and Vanessa Panousis and Emily Garland each had 32 points. There were also some big games in North West Tasmania this week as Ionna McKenzie had 32 points and 23 rebounds and Ice Young had 38 points. Another competition starting play this week was Big V Basketball, which consists of three tiers of eight, ten, and eight teams in Victoria. There were no particularly statlines that stood out, but in the third tier, Eliza Mora is coaching the Mornington Breakers and did insert herself in the game for a few minutes while Saule Kontautaite was an assistant coach for their opponents Collingwood after playing in the top division for the Camberwell Dragons the day before.
Americas
In the conference finals in Argentina, teams were either looking for sweeps on Saturday or to force a deciding game on Sunday. Berazategui had won at home so they needed one more upset to advance and they stunned Obras again, this time 61-53. Quimsa wanted to avoid the same fate and they won 51-40 against Instituto to cement their dominance in the northern conference. All three series ended in sweeps in Mexico as Teporacas remains undefeated after their wins over Lobas. Racers sit behind them after two wins against Lenadoras and Quetzales won their games against Mexcaltecas. Palmira Marcal had 31 points in a game in Brazil.
Around Europe
The winner of the unified Albania-Kosovo competition was determined midweek. Flamurtari defeated Prishtina 83-74 in Wednesday’s first game and then Partizani joined their fellow Albanian team with a 62-60 win over Bashkimi, which won the third place game 68-63 on Thursday. Partizani then prevailed 72-61 against Flamurtari for the championship. The regular season concluded in the Baltic with Audentes not showing up for their last two games as Riga Stradins University won at Neptunas and then edged Kibirkstis to take the top spot and a direct place in the semifinals. Laurita Jurciute had 40 points to get LCC International University the last quarterfinal place while Rita Zilinskaite had a 34 point game in Lithuania’s second division.
The quarterfinals all ended in sweeps in Slovakia. Grengewald Hueschtert won the cup in Luxembourg as teams now get ready for the postseason. Panathlitikos evened up the relegation series in Greece, but Evnikos won Sunday’s deciding game. The playoffs continued speeding along as Panathinaikos advanced to the finals while Niki Lefkada completed a sweep in the consolation bracket while Cierra Johnson had a 37 point game in the other series. The two great rivals started a de facto best of five series since they split in the regular season and Olympiacos won the first game 76-69. The last four teams in the German Cup met over the weekend to determine the winner and it was Hannover that won both games to lift the trophy. Most of the playoffs started in the Czech Republic and Pamela-Therese Effangova had a 31 point game to lead Hradec Kralove, the only road team to win so far. AEL Limassol completed a sweep in the finals in Cyprus with a 71-40 win on Thursday. The finals started in Austria with Klosterneuberg winning the first game. The regular season in Romania is over and Sepsi is undefeated, but the big game on the final day saw Anisha George provide 30 points and 25 rebounds to give her team homecourt advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
Chase for Promotion
The Serbian second division still has two rounds left in the regular season and there was only one game played this week with Andela Marojevic scoring 31 points in a loss where her team only played their starters. An incredible game in Portugal’s second division saw the stars collect nearly as many points between them as was scored in one of the other games and 48 points and 26 rebounds was enough for Becca Wann-Taylor to get her team the win as Lanay Rodney had 41 points while Hannah Armour continued her recent run with a 44 point game. There are teams in France’s second division that are both chasing the playoffs for promotion and trying to avoid getting sucked into the relegation battle after another Saturday of good games. The regular season concluded in Iceland’s second division with the top four teams competing in best of five series. Jayla Johnson had 32 points to close out the season for Tindastoll while Maddie Sutton had a triple-double in 20 minutes against a Breidablik team that finished winless.
It was a week with two rounds of games in the Turkish second division and Tarsus losing midweek left the door open for Izmit, but they could not capitalize over the weekend. Ameryst Alston led a parade of big individual efforts with a 37 point game and a 33 point game, although both came in losses. Eacg came in a terrific duel as Amber Smith had 33 points and Aliyah Maczyk had 35 points. Monique Reid had a 36 point game and Zakyia Weathersby grabbed 20 rebounds midweek.
Notable Individual Performances
The regular season concluded on Tuesday in Sweden and Elin Ljunggren marked the occasion with a 33 point effort. Julie McCarthy grabbed 20 rebounds in a game in Norway. Isabela Quevedo reached the same mark in Portugal and Emilija Podrug did the same in Croatia. Ke’Aunna Johnson had 31 points in the final game of the regular season in Kosovo. Elma Feukic had a 30 point game in the Bosnian league while another game saw Nikolina Elez score 31 points in the win to edge out Jovana Milakovic’s 30 point effort. Emily Tershalla nearly grabbed as many rebounds as her opponents scored points with 20 in Tirana’s win to close out the regular season in Albania. Keira Robinson and Brittany Dinkins matched each other with 30 points in their battle in Iceland.
A busy week of games in Ukraine had all kinds of impressive statlines. Anna Yarosh had 34 points and 21 rebounds then had a 32 point game. Ksenia Afanasieva dished out 18 assists in a game, Maria Pugach grabbed 22 rebounds, and Olena Koroshykh had a 30 point game. The regular season concluded in Finland with two rounds of games meaning a number of big individual scoring outputs. Tynice Martin led everyone with 33 points, Carmen Tyson-Thomas and Alex Wittinger had 32 points each, and Ilmar’I Thomas had 30 points.
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