Australia
All the divisions in NBL1 played this weekend with the Central competition returning from a week off and Brooke Basham had 31 points there for North Adelaide. Kristina Moore had 33 points for the Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders, but the team continues to struggle in the East Division. Darcee Garbin had 34 points in her debut for the Goldfields Giants in the West division to lead them to a 92-85 win. The top two teams met with Sarah Mortensen keeping the Cockburn Cougars undefeated after an 85-74 win over the Joondalup Wolves.
The first game of the round in the South Division had the big statlines on both sides as Hailey Leidel had 34 points to get the Eltham Wildcats the win over the Hobart Chargers, which got 35 points from Kayla Steindl. Amy Atwell had 32 points for league leaders Bendigo. Abbey Wehrung paced the Ballarat Miners with 35 points. Louise Forsyth helped Eltham complete the Tasmania double with 32 points in their win over the Launceston Tornadoes.
An excellent showdown closed out the weekend in the North division as Taylor Mole had 36 points and the Cairns Dolphins finished an 83-80 comeback win over the Rockhampton Cyclones, which got 31 points from Samantha Bowman. Elin Gustavsson had 30 points and 23 rebounds for the Southern Districts Spartans, but they still lost. Mikaela Ruef had a 25 rebound game for the Logan Thunder and Donica Cosby had 30 points for the Red City Roar.
The final week of the regular season in North West Tasmania featured a 40 point signoff from Ice Young and 32 points from Riley Lupfer. The playoffs start with Penguin playing Latrobe to extend their season and the top two seeds Devonport and Burnie playing for the direct spot in the Final. Amanda Paschal was the top scorer in the top division of Big V Basketball with 32 points. In the second division, the combination of 33 points from Tyra Johnson and 32 points from Vanessa Power got Mildura a win. Emmie O’Nial grabbed 22 rebounds.
Americas
Another partial round of play in Brazil started on Tuesday with Araraqua’s 77-41 win over Santo Andre. Blumenau defeated Catanduva 76-69 on Wednesday and then Sampaio rolled past Ituano 65-38 on Saturday.
One championship was awarded in Mexico after Teporacas finished off a sweep with a 75-57 win over Mieleras on Tuesday back in Chihuahua.
It was a double set of games in the other league in Mexico with Xalapa and Libertadores splitting games on Tuesday and Wednesday. All the series on the Wednesday-Thursday schedule finished with sweeps as Chihuahua won at Irapuato and Aguascalientes won at Fresnillo. Jalisco defeated Leon and Veracruz defeated Monterrey to deliver a pair of series to home teams. Most of the other set of games was Sunday-Monday and Leon salvaged a split against Irapuato and Xalapa forced overtime to win one game at Chihuahua. Aguascalientes swept Veracruz and Queretaro had a pair of narrow wins over Fresnillo. One series started on Monday with Jalisco defeating Correcaminos.
Europe
There were still a handful of competitions that needed to be finished across the continent. One game would settle the last team to earn a spot in Turkey’s top division and it was a fantastic game last Monday, but Izmit had the edge late and home and finished bouncing back immediately after their 57-56 win over Alanya.
The two promotion series in Italy’s second division started with Battipaglia’s complete domination of the fourth quarter getting them the 72-62 win over Firenze on Saturday in the South. The North is already decided after Richelle Van Der Keijl had 20 rebounds in Milano’s 74-64 win over Costa Masnaga last Monday and then they finished a sweep with a 69-63 win on Thursday.
Teams were fighting for six spots in Spain’s third division with a number of reserve teams involved in the two tournaments in Malaga and Granada. The winners of each group of four would advance after games Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and then the second place teams at each site would play each other on Sunday for one more spot.
Ibaizabal’s narrow win over Gran Canaria’s reserves got them the automatic spot in Group 1 in Malaga, leaving FLBA and Helios short of their goal. Distrito Olimpico took the other spot at the site thanks to their head-to-head win over Tordera, which functions as Girona’s reserve team, in double-overtime. That wiped out their loss to University of Deusto Loiola Indautxu and hosts El Palo also failed to advance. Gran Canaria looked like they were going to cruise to the last spot from this site, but Group 2 representative Tordera surged late for a 63-61 win.
Alcorcon won all of the games in Group 3 in Granada, with Roser finishing being them and Ponce Valladolid and the hosts falling short. ADBA won all their games in Group 4, followed by Tenerife. Calvia and the reserve team of Caceres missed the mark for advancement. That set up Sunday’s game for the last spot and Tenerife held off Roser 53-47 to secure their spot.
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