Israeli League
Semifinals Game 1
Both semifinals series started on Monday and there was plenty of drama in the first game. Jazmine Jones and Alisia Jenkins were ready to get Ramat Hasharon a road win, but Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Maccabi Ashdod roared back to force overtime and win 77-71. It was a lot easier for Elitzur Ramla as Alysha Clark and Shakira Austin provided the scoring and Elina Babkina pulled all the right strings in their 86-59 win over Jaime Nared and Maccabi Ramat Gan.
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=7368
Maccabi Ashdod [77]: Walker-Kimbrough 27/6r Cambage 15/9r Hiedeman 10/7r/9a Cohen 10 Edelman 7 Dayan 6 Sahar 2/6r
Ramat Hasharon [71]: Jones 31/7r Jenkins 20/8r Collier 12/10r Saar 5 Deluty 0
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=7369
Elitzur Ramla [86]: Clark 21/6r Austin 20/11r Baron 18/8r Danan 9 Fleischer 5/9r Babkina 4/15a
Maccabi Ramat Gan [59]: Nared 21/6r Abboud 12 Alleyne 10/19r Abboud 12 Brown 0/8a
Lower Group Round 4
The second half of the double round-robin started on Monday and Taylor Wurtz and Danielle Adams finished securing safety for ASA Jerusalem, a remarkable accomplishment given how late they were awarded the vacant spot in this division, after their 87-78 win over Kenisha Bell and Hapoel Petah Tikva. There was more at stake for Herzliya and it showed in their 88-66 win over Jennie Simms and Elitzur Holon behind Promise Amukamara.
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6390
Hapoel Petah Tikva [78]: Bell 21/6r/9a Purvis 19 Muldrow 14/7r Hadad 12 Bone 10/9a
ASA Jerusalem [87]: Wurtz 34/9r Adams 27/17r Turudic 11/8a
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=6389
Bnot Herzliya [88]: Amukamara 21/13a Richardson 18/12r Azouri 12 Nyingifa 9/10r Zambrotta 9 Shea 3
Elitzur Holon [66]: Simms 26/10r/6a Hurt 18/15r Harden 5 Presley 3
Standings:
1. Elitzur Holon 8-14
2. ASA Jerusalem 7-15
3. Hapoel Petah Tikva 5-17
4. Bnot Herzliya 5-17
World of Basketball
Asia
Woori Bank extended their lead in the finals in South Korea with an 84-67 Game 2 win and then completed the sweep over BNK with a 64-58 win on Thursday. This stage of the season is over in Taiwan and the highlight game at the end was Taiyuan Textile edging past Cathay Life 70-65 for the overall lead even though they did not have the tiebreaker in this stage.
Americas
In Argentina, there was not much data to go off of in terms of cross-conference play ahead of the finals. Quimsa hosted on Friday and Saturday after a fantastic regular season, but Berazategui had already pulled off an upset in the last round. They started fantastically with a 55-45 win and then a 54-52 escape and now just need a win at home on either Thursday or Friday to win the championship. The schedule is different in Mexico this round with one series set for midweek. Teporacas remained undefeated with a sweep of Quetzales while Racers stayed behind them with a pair of wins over Mexcaltecas.
Australia
NBL1 play continued in the East division and Tahlia Tupaea had 45 points, but the Penrith Panthers still fell to the youngsters of the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence. The Sydney Comets may have the league’s most explosive offense and Vanessa Panousis scored 37 points for them in a big win. Emily Garland had 31 points for the Sutherland Sharks as the opposing Inner West Bulls were able to field Mikaela Dombkins and Leilani Mitchell together.
Two more divisions started play, including the North, which features one team from the Northern Territory along with the teams in Queensland. Penina Davidson had the highest scoring game of anyone with 40 points for the Cairns Dolphins, adding 21 rebounds in a game that saw Kate Gaze deliver a 29 point, 13 rebound, 11 assist triple-double for the Townsville Flames. Samantha Bowman had a 38 point, 20 rebound game for the Rockhampton Cyclones less than three weeks after her college career ended. Also on the import front, Ariana Moorer had 37 points and Alison Gorrell had 30 points. The teams from South Australia started play in the Central division.
It was the second weekend of play in Victoria’s Big V basketball and it was a tough one for Mornington in the third tier after surrendering 153 points in their second game to Gippsland, which had Shanara Notman pour in 36 points and Macey McGlead add 35 points. In the top division, Dyani Ananiev had a 31 point game as she gets in more minutes before she is scheduled to start her college career at Portland. Play also continued in North West Tasmania and Ice Young had a pair of strong games in Smithton wins by following up a 31 point game with a 43 point effort. Ionna McKenzie had a 31 point game in a Wynyard win.
Around Europe
The two games series in the Baltic League quarterfinals were played this week. Riga defeated Aistes 66-52 on Tuesday and then advanced even with a 79-76 loss on Saturday. Neptunas had a narrow 70-67 win on Friday against Tallinn University of Technology, but broke that margin open on Sunday after a 92-75 win. Kibirkstis was in good shape after Friday’s 79-58 win over LCC International University and then coasted to an 81-75 win on Sunday. Rita Zilinskaite had a 31 point game in domestic play in Lithuania. The champion was decided in the Adriatic with games on Saturday and Sunday as hosts Buducnost won their semifinal against Montana 73-57 and then Celje defeated Vojvodina 86-57. Vojvodina took the third place game 64-56 and then a tight final game had Celje get the 66-64 win over the hosts.
All four quarterfinals ended in sweeps in Sweden as Ostersund, Lulea, Sodertalje, and Norrkoping followed up home wins with victories on the road, including Brooke McCarty-Williams scoring 31 points in Lulea’s decider. Sweeps were also completed in Romania’s quarterfinals by Constanta, Rapid, Sepsi, and Arad with Miljana Dzombeta delivering 16 assists for Constanta while a consolation bracket game saw Alina Chivu record a 26 point, 13 rebound, 10 assist triple-double and Cristina Badi add 20 rebounds for Targoviste. It was closer in the second game, but Klosterneuberg is one win away from the championship in Austria after prevailing 53-47 over Graz.
In Kosovo, Aulona Muhadri had 20 rebounds in one of two wins for Bashkimi while Zerina Shatri had 31 points in Prishtina’s first win and then Adrienne Godbold had 33 points and Kaela Hilaire had 19 assists in their second win over Penza. The playoffs also started in Finland and Sierra Moore had 39 points to get Espoo one win, but they were forced into a deciding game. Natalie Kleemann-Day had 31 points in one game as Peli-Karhut completed a sweep and Caterrion Thompson had 30 points in one of Forssan Alku’s wins on their way to a sweep with another series concluding on Monday because Ilmar’I Thomas had 43 points for Torpan Pojat. The semifinals started in Denmark and AKS Falcon advanced after a 92-89 overtime win over Abyhoj. The other series is tied with Herlev set to host Amager next weekend. All three other quarterfinal series ended in sweeps in the Czech Republic before the favorites started their series after Chomutov’s overtime win to join Brno and Hradec Kralove. Trutnov finished a sweep of Strakonice in the 9th place series.
Home teams won the openers of the quarterfinals in Luxembourg despite the best efforts of Mikayla Ferenz, who had 34 points. Faith Etute had 20 rebounds and Jovana Jaksic had 30 points. The second division teams have not offered much of a challenge to the bottom group of the top division so far thanks to their foreigner disadvantage as Amaya Scott grabbed 23 rebounds in her game. LeLe Grissett had 43 points and 24 rebounds and Jade Compton had 43 points and 23 rebounds. Panathinaikos had to take a break from the finals in Greece to contest the rest of the cup first and they got quite a tough test from Eleutheria Moschatou, but did win 66-61 with a big fourth quarter. Kiki Herbert Harrigan had 33 points to lead London Lions to an 91-70 cup final win against Leicester. The British league also had games with Jessica Wayne recording 12 steals and Mari Stewart scoring 32 points.
Chase for Promotion
Ferrol officially clinched promotion to Spain’s top division. Gabriela Marginean had 31 points in a loss for Izmit in Turkey’s second division as they have a tough path to promotion. Jelena Bosnic had a 39 point game in Serbia’s second division. In Iceland’s second division, Riley Popplewell had 23 rebounds in Stjarnan’s 102-96 win over KR, which got 30 points from Violet Morrow while Thor won their first game 80-78 against Snaefell. Shannon Ryan marked the end of the regular season in Germany’s second division with a 40 point effort. In France’s second division, the youngsters of the federal program won their first game of the season. Some familiar names had big games in Portugal’s second division. Hannah Armour had 48 points while Becca Wann-Taylor had 37 points and 25 rebounds and Lanay Rodney had 32 points. In the group of teams trying to stay in the division, Rakia Lane and Jaelyn Tweedy each had 30 points.
Notable Individual Performances
A busy week in Ukraine included Anna Yarosh scoring 32 points then 35 points. Louise Forsyth had a 31 point game in Switzerland. Hana Sambolic reached the 32 point mark in Slovenia. Kwanza Murray had 30 points as the regular season ended in Portugal. The regular season is also over in Norway, which is good news for Tromso as Sunniva Sorbye and Synne Jacobsen each outscored their whole team in Ulriken’s 109-15 win. Keira Robinson had a 35 point game in Iceland. Nikolina Elez had 32 points in a Bosnian league game. Ziomara Morrison scored 34 points in a game in Belgium. There were plenty of big games in Albania as the regular season draws to a close. Flamurtari had a strong week as Sophia Jacobsson had 30 and 33 point games, Analyss Benally had a 37 point game and a 29 point triple-double, and De’Ja Marshall had a 20 rebound game. Barleti struggled, but Neda Uka did grab 22 rebounds in one of their games.
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