World of Basketball
Asia
The finals were contested in Japan on three consecutive days. The Antelopes won 55-47 on Saturday, but the Sunflowers used a strong fourth quarter to win 74-65 on Sunday. That final game on Monday provided plenty of excitement, staying close throughout on the way to two overtimes before the Sunflowers prevailed 72-64. All of the quarterfinals series were completed in Kazakhstan and then the semifinals started at a single site. Ertis swept Caspiy, Astana Tigers swept Okzhetpes, and Ganna Rulyova had 32 points in the first game for Turan in their sweep over Shymkent. Aqtobe completed the only seeding upset as Tomiris forced a deciding game, but fell 62-55. Astana Tigers and Turan opened the semifinals with wins on Monday. This stage of the league in Taiwan ended with Cathay Life edging Taiyuan Textile to finish undefeated and maintain the overall edge in the standings.
Australia
There have been many feel good stories this season, but there was a quite a candidate for 2023 in NBL1’s Central division on Saturday when Andrea Aquino, who had to deal with all kinds of adversity from the moment that she started her basketball and educational experience in the United States, made her debut with the West Adelaide Bearcats. Nicole Fransson grabbed 23 rebounds in Woodville’s game.
Sami Whitcomb had 35 points to open the weekend in the West for Willetton, but it was far from the only big performance in the division. Sarah Mortensen had 34 points for the Cockburn Cougars, Emma Clarke was impressively efficient with 32 points for the Perry Lakes Hawks, 33 points from Casey Samuels helped the Rockingham Flames prevail in overtime, and Olivia Berry had 31 points for the Goldfields Giants.
Shaneice Swain completed a whirlwind week by suiting up for the Cairns Dolphins in the North division. Bride Kennedy-Hopoate had 33 points to help the North Gold Coast Seahawks hold on to a win, which was tough on Leah Scott, who had 31 points, but she followed that up with 35 points in a win. Chevannah Paalvast grabbed 20 rebounds for the Logan Thunder. A pair of triple-doubles were recorded as Erin Bollmann had 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists for the Darwin Salties and Kendall Heremaia had 19 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists for the Sunshine Coast Phoenix.
Jade Melbourne suited up for the Melbourne Tigers in the South division to warm up for the WNBA season and Anneli Maley also prepared for training camp by playing with the Eltham Wildcats. Nyadiew Puoch returned from global notoriety with a 35 point game for the Dandenong Rangers and the Hobart Chargers also fell the next night despite 30 points from Paige Bradley. Keely Froling had 32 points for Launceston and Amy Atwell scored 30 points for Bendigo.
In the East division, Mikaela Dombkins grabbed 25 rebounds for the Inner West Bulls as part of a busy weekend even with the youngsters taking the round off for youth nationals. Violet Morrow had 30 points for the Bankstown Bruins and Maddy Norris reached that mark for the Sutherland Sharks. Everyone is looking forward to seeing how the backcourt of the Sydney Comets will look by the end of the season and Vanessa Panousis showed that it could be quite explosive as she poured in 40 points.
A full day of games in North West Tasmania on Tuesday included a big surprise as last place Ulverstone handed Devonport their first loss. Ionna McKenzie grabbed 21 rebounds in Wynyard’s loss. A terrific duel saw Ice Young score 31 points for Smithton, but Riley Lupfer’s 45 points helped Penguin get the win. There was no more impressive performance than Mariah Payne’s effort for Burnie as she poured in 57 points.
There were also strong individual performances in Victoria with teams returning from the holiday break. Alicia Carline grabbed 20 rebounds in the top division. In the second tier, Courtney Strait had 35 points to help the Craigieburn Eagles hold on to a win while Michaela Kuen had 20 rebounds. In the third tier, Kylah Collins recorded 11 steals and Kim Hammond secured 22 boards.
Americas
All the teams played another game this week in Brazil and there were some big scoring outputs. Sassa Goncalves had 31 points for Santo Andre on Thursday. Patty Teixeira then had 31 points for Sampaio on Friday. Nayarit hosted the All Star festivities in Mexico this weekend and it was a 90-74 win for the Pink team.
Around Europe
Fribourg had to pull away late to secure an opening win in the finals in Switzerland. Piestanske Cajky won the first game of the finals in Slovakia while Deijah Blanks had 37 points to help Young Angels Kosice come back and win the first game in the 3rd place series. Samorin and Banska Bystrica won in the 5th and 7th place series respectively. Crvena zvezda won 74-63 on Wednesday to extend their lead in Serbia, but Kraljevo won 85-79 on the road Saturday to keep their championship hopes alive. Sepsi won the first two game of the finals in Romania while Anisha George had 31 points and Adrienne Motley had 30 points in other series. Grengewald Hueschtert won 82-71 on the road to start the finals in Luxembourg. The deciding game for the championship in Kosovo was played on Tuesday with Bashkimi winning 78-64 at home against Prishtina. 30 points from Caterrion Thompson was not enough for Forssan Alku to win the bronze medal game in Finland won by Vimpeli Veto while Natalie Kleemann-Day had 32 points to get Peli-Karhut the first win the finals 80-71 over Torpan Pojat. The Tallinn University of Technology defeated Audentes 98-40 to win the championship in Estonia. AKS Falcon is one win away from the championship in Denmark while Abyhoj won the bronze medal game.
The season concluded in Norway with eight teams playing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to determine the champions and the rest of the placements. Baerum got 31 points from Abbey Huff to help them get to the final, but they lost there to Ulriken Eagles 66-46. Asker Aliens defeated Ullern 73-64 for 3rd place, Bergen Elite defeated Midtbyen 67-57 for 5th place, and Tromso Storm Ungdom sent EB-85 to another defeat 56-41 for 7th place. Before the playoffs in Croatia, the cup winner was crowned this weekend. The top two teams in the league standings won their semifinal, setting up a fantastic final game that saw Ragusa edge Tresnjevka 66-64 ahead of a possible meeting for another championship.
Lulea completed a sweep to get to the finals in Sweden, but the other series went to deciding game before Klara Lunquist could deliver 30 points and Sodertalje could complete a comeback. The regular season finished in Montenegro and then the playoffs started with Buducnost winning on one side while Podgorica withstood 34 and 37 point performances from Aleksandra Muzevic to defeat Novi. Keflavik won their semifinals series on Thursday, but it took the maximum number of games for Valur to finish off Haukur on Sunday. Hannover finished their sweep on Friday and have been joined by Keltern after they won on Sunday, getting forced into the deciding game by a 30 point performance from Laina Snyder. With the presumptive champions busy, it was just the 3rd place series that started in the Czech Republic with Chomutov edging past Hradec Kralove 76-73 in the first game. Mechelen and Braine completed sweeps in the semifinals in Belgium.
Chase for Promotion
The playoffs started in Turkey with the last spot in the top division next season up for grabs from among the six teams that are not reserve sides. Fenerbahce’s reserve team win their opener against Alanya before they got a break for the first team to win their continental tournament. Izmit won their first game against Bogazici narrowly and then withstood a 50 point game from Monique Reid to complete the sweep. Aliyah Maczyk had 34 points to get Kirklareli a win on the road, but Edremit bounced back to force a deciding game, which saw Zakyia Weathersby carrying them to the win with 34 points and 26 rebounds. Botas’s reserve team had an easy opening win, but Elazig Il Ozel Idare extended their season with an overtime win.
In Spain, the second division promotion playoffs opened with the team that finished lower in the standings hosting the first game with the other team hosting next Saturday. Estepona was the only home team to win as they edged Alcobendas 67-62, but the other series are still close with Zamora’s 67-59 win over Ardoi being the biggest margin. Celta defeated Caceres and Joventut Badalona defeated Paterna by the same 57-53 margins.
The first game of the next round in the promotion playoffs was played in Germany’s second division. The South teams are on the brink of elimination after Bamberg lost to Bochum 67-63 at home and Wurzburg trails Rotenburg 57-45. The two series with both teams from the North had Opladen winning 73-61 at Bad Homburg and Gottingen winning 57-40 over Chemnitz. The playdown in the North has all the teams tied while Wasserburg won a key game in their quest to avoid falling down another division.
The best of three quarterfinals started in France’s second division with the playoffs determining the lone promotion place. Top seed Charnay rolled to an 88-48 win over Aulnoye and Chatres had an easy 79-50 win over Mondeville on the other side of the bracket. Strasbourg won at Feytiat 67-51 to give them a chance to move on at home. That was the only seeding upset as Champagne crushed La Tronche Meylan 71-48. Covering the divisional movements in the 96 team 5th tier or the 48 team 4th tier might be a little too far as their seasons concluded. The two groups of the 3rd tier are ready to send their top teams to the final phase between them to determine who will move up next season.
Teams are playing for spots in Luxembourg’s top division and Jade Compton had 32 points and LeLe Grissett had 31 points and 23 rebounds to get Soleuvre a win. Valentine Jung had 32 points for Etzella as the teams from the second division are understandably not getting close to the teams trying to stay at that level. The regular season is over in Italy’s second division so the playoffs now begin as teams race towards promotion. The winner of the second division in Iceland will be determined on Tuesday after Dilja Larusdottir’s 32 points helped Stjarnan win 74-68 in overtime on Wednesday despite Maddie Sutton’s 30 points and then Thor struck back to even the series with a 91-84 win on Saturday. The two promotion places were determined in Greece with one game playoffs for each group of the second division and a historic team in Athinaikos was joined by Iraklis.
Notable Individual Performances
The season finished in Ukraine with a few more spectacular statlines. Kira Sotsenko had 20 rebounds while Anastasia Kostoglod had 34 points in a game that saw Anna Yarosh pour in 44 points. The top two teams met in Lithuania and Gintare Petronyte had 30 points to make sure that Kibirkstis would stay above Neptunas. Olga Fomina had 31 points, but her team lost again. In the British league, Karly Murphy had 20 rebounds, which Kennedy Nicholas surpassed with 23 boards and she also had 31 points in a different game, which was matched by Grace George for the opposition.
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