Hungarian League Semifinals Game 2 April 9th-10th
One series continued on Sunday in Miskolc and did not reach the scoring heights of the last meeting, but DVTK kept the championship hopes alive with a 67-55 win over Gyor. Sopron stifled Szekszard 67-42 on Monday to sweep the other series.
https://hunbasket.hu/merkozes/x2223/whun_ply/whun_ply_174
DVTK [67]: Garbin 17/7r Guirantes 16/16r Bernath 15 Aho 4/6r
Gyor [55]: Ellenberg-Wiley 17 Williams 14 Dubei 10/6r Oroszova 2/7r
Series tied 1-1
https://hunbasket.hu/merkozes/x2223/whun_ply/whun_ply_175
Szekszard [42]: Goree 12/11r Miklos 10 Wallace 6 Krnjic 0
Sopron [67]: Kunek 15 Brooks 12/6r Magbegor 8/9r Turner 6 Stankovic 6
Sopron wins series 2-0
Israeli League Finals Game 1
Neither team had the lineup that they were hoping for when the championship series started on Monday. Shakira Austin definitively won the battle in the post for Elitzur Ramla and they won on the road 96-85 over Maccabi Ashdod and Liz Cambage, putting themselves in strong position for their first home game on Thursday.
https://wbl.co.il/game-zone.asp?GameId=8374
Maccabi Ashdod [85]: Cambage 20 Walker-Kimbrough 19/8a Hiedeman 12/7r/9a Cohen 11/6r Edelman 8/10r Sahar 8 Dayan 7
Elitzur Ramla [96]: Austin 39/14r Babkina 16/7r/11a Clark 15/8r Rotberg 14 Baron 9 Danan 3 Fleischer 0
Italian League Quarterfinals Game 3
One deciding game was played early on Monday with Schio having a busy upcoming weekend. The start of the game was not what they imagined with the score tied at halftime, but Marina Mabrey helped them pull away for an 87-63 win over Campobasso.
https://www.legabasketfemminile.com/MatchStats.aspx?ID=293&MID=51733&rg=
Schio [87]: Mabrey 24/7r Howard 15 Mestdagh 11/10r Verona 10 Ndour-Fall 6/6r Penna 0
Campobasso [63]: Abdi 15 Quinonez 13 Togliani 12 Trimboli 12 Parks 1
Schio wins series 2-1
Italian League Playout Game 2
Both series continued on Monday with road teams looking to end their seasons with wins and home teams trying to even their series to Friday and avoid getting dumped into the final series to stay in the league. San Giovanni Valdarno forced a deciding game with a 61-53 win over Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah and Faenza. Que Morrison and Lucca also gave themselves another chance to avoid the drop early with a 73-54 win over Moncalieri.
https://www.legabasketfemminile.com/MatchStats.aspx?ID=293&MID=51739&rg=
San Giovanni Valdarno [61]: Garrick 19/10r Tassinari 14 Krivacevic 5 Paulsson Glantz 5
Faenza [53]: Kunaiyi-Akpanah 17/22r Campisano 12 Hinriksdottir 2 Davis 2
Series tied 1-1
https://www.legabasketfemminile.com/MatchStats.aspx?ID=293&MID=51740&rg=
Lucca [73]: Morrison 22/8r Miccoli 16/15r Lisowa Mbaka 10
Moncalieri [54]: Tagliamento 18 Westbeld 12/10r Mitchell 4 Sagerer 2
Series tied 1-1
World of Basketball
Asia
The champion of Japan will be determined next week as the semifinals were played this weekend in the continued single site format. The Magic were the story of the first weekend, but they ran out of tricks after losing to the Antelopes 78-64 on Saturday and a triple-double from Haruka Koike still left them short 66-56 on Sunday. The other series was closer, but Ramu Tokashiki was the difference for the Sunflowers in a 71-67 win on Saturday and then grabbed 21 rebounds on Sunday to eliminate Iris 61-59. Cathay Life remained undefeated in this stage of the season in Taiwan, edging Taiyuan Textile 74-70 on Friday to also take the overall lead in the standings.
Australia
There was a lighter scheduled across NBL1 due to the holiday weekend, but there were still some standout efforts. Megan McKay scored the most points in the South Division with 31 points for Bendigo. Teige Morrell had 33 points for the Joondalup Wolves, but the story of the West Division was definitely Sami Whitcomb signing a short-term deal with the Willetton Tigers to get ready for the WNBA season and play on the same team as her wife and she had 31 points in her first game. In the Central division, Ally Wilson had a 12 point, 16 rebound, 12 assist triple-double for the Norwood Flames and Mikayla Williams Grabbed 26 rebounds for the Sturt Sabres.
All of the teams played a game in North West Tasmania this week and there were a couple of terrific duels. Latrobe got 35 points from Lilly O’Neill to defeat Smithton, which had Ice Young score 39 points. Riley Lupfer poured in 38 points for Penguin in their win over Burnie, which got 32 points from Mariah Payne.
Americas
Games were scattered across the week in Mexico. Mexcaltecas swept Lobas in games played on Tuesday and Wednesday, getting 33 points from Paola Beltran in the first game to pull out of last place Lenadoras swept Quetzales on Friday and Saturday to sit at the bottom of that tiebreaker. Mieleras swept Racers on Saturday and Sunday in the battle for second place. Beatriz Oliveira had a 10 point, 11 rebound, 13 assist triple-double in Brazil for Campinas. Thayna Silva had 33 points the next night to get her team an overtime win. Araraqua remains undefeated while Ituano is still looking for their first win after five games for each team.
Around Europe
The regular season concluded in Switzerland and then the playoffs started immediately with Fribourg and Nyon quickly completing sweeps to set up a finals matchup. In Sweden, Norrkoping evened up their series with Sodertalje while Lulea extended their lead on Ostersund thanks to 31 points from Brooke McCarty-Williams. Khadijiah Cave had 20 rebounds to send Sepsi to the finals in Romania where they will face Constanta. In the lower brackets, Tanesha Sutton had a 17 point, 13 rebound, 13 assist triple-double and Alexis Cortez had 33 points. The semifinals are set in Portugal after Benfica and Esgueira won their deciding games to join GDESSA Barreiro and Uniao Sportiva, which recorded sweeps. The finals are set in Luxembourg after Diddeleng and Grengewald Hueschtert completed semifinals sweeps, the latter getting 35 points from Sam Logic and 33 points from Lauren Van Kleunen. The top teams joined the fray for the playoffs in Latvia and Riga and Riga Stradins University look set to meet in the finals as they started the semifinals with wins. In Iceland’s semifinals, Valur doubled their lead, but Haukur won on Sunday to keep their season alive while Njardvik evened their series on Thursday despite 32 points from Daniela Wallen for Keflavik, which took the lead with a win at home. Hannover and Keltern won the first games of their semifinals series in Germany. Karhut won two more games to reach the finals in Finland while Ilmar’I Thomas had 33 points to even the other series on Tuesday and then helped Torpan Pojat to win the deciding game on Monday. The expected sweeps occurred for USK Praha and Brno in the semifinals in the Czech Republic. The quarterfinals series were all played in Belgium with Ziomara Morrison having a 30 point game in the opener for top seed Mechelen, which will be joined by Braine, Namur, and Liege.
No games were played in the upper half in Slovakia, but Samorin did defeat Kosice 85-50 and Banska Bystrica defeated Poprad in the battles for 5th and 7th place. Crvena zvezda won the first game of the finals in Serbia 73-66 against Kraljevo. The championship will come down to one game on Tuesday in Kosovo after Bashkimi won 70-69 last Tuesday, and then Prishtina extended the season with a 67-42 win on Friday. The last game played in Greece’s top division will be for the consolation championship after Niki Lefkadas overturned the regular season results with two victories over Chanion. PAOK defeated Proteas Voulas on Tuesday and Wednesday to take 7th place.
Chase for Promotion
The regular season concluded on Saturday in the Turkish second division. Tarsus had long clinched the title and automatic promotion, but the eight teams below them will start the playoffs with the reserve squads for Fenerbahce and Botas figuring to be an obstacle for the other teams trying to grab the other spot. Elazig will not be in the playoffs, but that did not prevent Ameryst Alston from signing off with 47 points in a game that had Monique Reid record a 32 point, 18 rebound, 16 assist triple-double on the other side. Zakyia Weathersby had 34 points and 23 rebounds for Edremit and Aliyah Mazyck 35 points for Kirklareli as the teams will meet again in the first round of the playoffs.
The regular seasons also finished in the second and third divisions in Spain so the promotion playoffs are set there too. Ferrol already clinched promotion, but made sure that they won the league by four full games at the end. The eight teams behind them will play two games series over the next two weekends to reach the last set of games with the winner securing the other spot. Cordoba was seven wins short of safety, but Iraurgi was the other team to drop despite a win as they finished at the bottom of a four team tie. There are no automatic promotion places in the third division as the top four teams in each half will form mixed groups of the first and fourth teams in one half and the second and third teams in the other half to play four games to determine the teams that will advance to the two two games series where the winners will secure promotion. Group 1 will have Miralvalle and Malaga from A and Castello and Viladecans from B while Almeria and Tirso Incentro from A and Segle XXI and Mallorca from B will form Group 2.
Julie Forner had 35 points in the first games of the playoffs in the German second division on Saturday. The top eight teams in the North and South qualified with the first round being two game cross-group matchups. The second legs were all played on Monday with the biggest scoring outputs coming in the same game after Alice Bremer had 35 points for Herner’s reserve team while Tori Waldner had 30 points for Bamberg. The next set of two games series feature South leaders Wurzburg hosting the North’s fourth place team Rotenburg, North leaders Opladen facing the fifth place team in their division Bad Homburg, North seventh place team Gottingen looking for another upset against third place Chemnitz, and the only other South team Bamberg, which finished third, against North second place Bochum. Teams are also fighting to stay at this level and Monday featured a terrific overtime game in the South that saw Emma Duff score 30 points to help Schwabach defeat Ludwigsburg, which got 36 points from Noreen Stockle.
Barcelos defeated Ferragudo 69-52 to keep their opponents from pulling away from all of the teams in Portugal’s second division. Hannah Armour had 31 points as her team lurks behind them while Aliyah Abney had 32 points in the race to avoid dropping to the third tier. Teams are fighting for spots in Luxembourg’s top division and LeLe Grissett had 31 points for Soleuvre in a 93-72 win over Etzella Ettelbruck, which got 30 points from Lianna Tillman. Milano secured the top seed in the North and Empoli clinched the top seed in the South in Italy’s second division as Patricia Brossmann had the most noteworthy individual effort with a 21 rebound game. The first two games were played in the finals in Iceland’s second division with Stjarnan winning 94-80 on Wednesday and Thor winning 84-79 on Saturday. Maddie Sutton had 20 rebounds in the opening loss, but had a 13 point, 11 rebound, 11 assist triple-double to help tie the series. Mondeville grabbed a spot in the second division playoffs in France after a win over Charnay, which was already locked into the top seed.
Notable Individual Performances
There is one more weekend in the regular season in Ukraine and Anastasia Kostoglod poured in 38 points to get her team the win while Anna Yarosh and Khrystyna Yarych each had 20 rebound games. Aleksandra Muzevic had 37 points in Montenegro to get her team a 71-70 win. Only domestic play is happening in Lithuania now and Olga Fomina had a 34 point game. Karly Murphy had 26 rebounds in a loss in the British league and the rebounding continued on Monday with 22 for Abby Niehues and 20 for Kennedy Nicholas. Teodora Dineva had a 32 point game in Beroe’s 74-50 win over Montana in a battle of the top two teams in Bulgaria. Almedina Ahmic had 20 rebounds in a game in the Bosnian league, but that was topped by Jovana Milakovic grabbing 27 boards. Bernada Rreshpja followed a 30 point game with a 39 point effort in Albania. There were also two triple-doubles there this week as Mirela Lugaj recorded a 20 point, 13 rebound, 11 assist game and Sophia Jacobsson just hit her marks with 10 point, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists.
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