Australia
It was an extremely busy weekend in NBL1, including in the South Division. Missing a couple of teammates, Isabella Brancatisano took the leading role for the Mt. Gambier Pioneers as the captain and had the highest scoring game with 35 points. Kayla Steindl reached 33 points and Alicia Froling and Hailey Leidel each had 31 point games. Kelly Wilson dished out 19 assists for Bendigo, which remains undefeated alongside Waverley.
There were a few spectacular statlines in the North Division, highlighted by Stephanie Reid’s 43 point outburst in a game that saw Elin Gustavsson score 31 points for the opposition. Cate Reese had the best game of her short professional career with 37 points in 26 minutes and Mia Loyd had 32 points. Lulu Laditan-Twidale had a spectacular 38 point game as she plays for the South West Metro Pirates before starting her college career at Cal. Triple-doubles were also the story of the weekend after Mikaela Ruef had a 17 point, 20 rebound, 10 assist game and Lauren Heard recorded 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists.
In the East Division, Meg Jefferson had 33 points in a game for the Penrith Panthers as she has started her professional career and Rhiannon Yetsenga grabbed 21 rebounds for the Hills Hornets. The last two undefeated teams in the West division played with the Cockburn Cougars getting the 84-79 win over the Joonalup Wolves. Paris Duffield had 31 points for the winless South West Slammers. There were no massive statlines in the Central division as the Sturt Sabres remained undefeated and increased their lead at the top of the standings after the Southern Tigers won against the South Adelaide Panthers.
Ice Young scored more points than anyone in North West Tasmania with 35 in a game that saw her teammate Savannah Au grab 22 rebounds. Ionna McKenzie also secured 22 boards in her game. Over in Big V Basketball, the leading scorer was in the third tier as Kylah Collins had 32 points for the Wallan Panthers and got close to outscoring the Redbacks of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Asia
The last playoffs series started in Kazakhstan over the weekend. Turan is one game away from a perfect season in games with no additional roster restrictions, defeating Astana 69-45 and 66-28. Aqtobe defeated Caspiy in each of the first two games in the third place series 67-53 and 68-32. In Taiwan, Taiyuan Textile advanced to the finals after 67-58 and 76-48 win over Chunghwa Telecom on Friday and Saturday.
Americas
All the teams played another game in Brazil and Ituano is suddenly streaking after defeating Santo Andre. Blumenau stayed a game ahead of them by upsetting Sampaio and then the last game of the round saw Campinas hand Araraquara their first loss. In Uruguay, Sabrina Molina had a 20 rebound game as she just missed a 5×5 game and in a less close game might have had an eye on a quadruple-double.
This phase has finished in Mexico after the third weekend of this format. In Group 1, Teporacas ensured that they would be in the top spot after an 80-50 win over Lobas on Friday. Quetzales won 63-58, but could not overtake Lobas in the tiebreaker so their 97-45 loss to Teporacas on Sunday left them short of the semifinals. In Group 2, there was not much still up in the air as Mieleras won 89-62 on Friday against Mexcaltecas, which lost 83-80 to Racers on Saturday despite 34 points from Arianna Macias. Mieleras finished this stage undefeated after Sunday’s 84-64 win over Racers.
The other league in Mexico started play this weekend. It was formed last season with eight teams from the main men’s league with the goal of being able to offer higher salaries than previous leagues. After proving to be a success, the competition grew to eleven teams this season and continued to attract reasonably notable players looking for more money outside the traditional calendar. The leading scorer this weekend was Marzia Taglimento, one of a number of European players who have signed. The teams will play two games series over two days against the rest of the teams for the regular season. Fresnillo got the bye this weekend, but the rest of the teams played. Monterrey swept Irapuato, Aguascalientes swept Jalisco, Queretaro swept Correcaminos, and Chihuahua swept Leon while Veracruz and Xalapa split their games.
Around Europe
Benfica tied up their series with a 62-49 win on Saturday, but could not finish defending their homecourt and GDESSA Barreiro won 61-55 on Sunday with a strong second half to win the championship in Portugal. Leicester Riders won 69-50 in the British league semifinals on Sunday to face overwhelming favorites London Lions, which won their game 74-49. Ragusa won the first two games of the finals in Croatia 78-57 on Wednesday and 74-60 on Saturday against Tresnjevka to put themselves with a win of the championship. Orlovi withstood 32 points from Aaliyah Dunham to win the first game of the Bosnian league finals 77-71 over Banovici.
Chase for Promotion
The final series is set in Turkey as Izmit won their deciding game 65-57 against the reserve team of Botas on Wednesday. The other series featured a terrific duel on Tuesday as Mikayla Cowling had 36 points for Alanya in a 73-55 win as Zakyia Weathersby’s 35 point, 20 rebound effort was not enough for Edremit and then the team based in Antalya won again 65-57 on Thursday to advance. The final series is set in France’s second division after both teams finished sweeps on Wednesday. Charnay’s second half got them a 65-55 win at Champagne and Chatres defeated Strasbourg 66-58 in Illkirch.
In Portugal’s second division, Hannah Armour had 31 points on Saturday to send her team to the next round. Down a game from last weekend, Becca Wann-Taylor had a 44 point game followed by a 39 point, 22 rebound effort to get Barcelos two wins and the other spot. Quarterfinals series concluded in Lithuania’s second division with Lithuanian Sports University Kaunas pulling off the lone seeding upset.
There were plenty of games in Luxembourg in the pool of teams trying to earn spots in the next top division season. LeLe Grissett had 36 points and 25 rebounds for Soleuvre on Wednesday as they try to stay undefeated in this group. Les Sangliers Wooltz won on Thursday thanks to 39 points and 10 steals from Hristina Marjanovic and 31 points from Julie Brosseau. The two teams from the second division battled on Saturday and Black Star Mersch defeated Telstar Hesperange 71-50. It was Jade Compton’s turn to lead Soleuvre on Sunday as she had 30 points in another win.
Italy’s second division started their North semifinals with Milano winning 64-50 against Udine at home and Costa Masnaga going to Scrivia prevailing 68-49 on Saturday. In the South division, Battipaglia won 69-61 at Spezzina on Sunday with the other series opening Tuesday. Carugate edged Trieste 56-53 in the first game of the North Playout on Sunday after Vigarano’s 69-56 win over Cagliari in the South on Saturday.
In Germany’s second division, Gottingen evened their series with Opladen after a 68-51 win. Rotenburg finished their sweep of Bochum with a 92-67 win on Saturday to secure a top division place. A fun three-way tie was avoided in the North Playdown as Eintracht Braunschweig’s win left Marburg on the bottom. The South also had a final day with remaining implications as Wasserburg’s win kept them from another fall and send Ludwigsburg to the drop instead.
Women's Basketball News and Opinions 