Americas
The playoffs started in Mexico with the first 4 games of the best of 7 quarterfinals played on Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday, and Monday. Top seed Chihuahua won twice at home and then headed to Fresnillo, completing the sweep there. Jalisco looked ready to follow them, winning twice at home in Guadalajara, including getting a 35 point game from Brooke McCarty-Williams in Game 2. They held off Veracruz in Game 3, but could not prevent the comeback to complete a sweep. Amy Okonkwo had 30 points to give Xalapa a seeding upset road win and they repeated the feat the next night in Aguascalientes. They moved a step closer to the next round at home, but could not complete the sweep in Game 4. The last series started in Monterrey with the home team winning, but Queretaro, buoyed by a late season signing, salvaged a split, but their opponents won the next 2 games to take the 3-1 lead.
The playoffs also started in Brazil after the break for continental competition and Friday’s game saw Santo Andre win at Blumenau. On Saturday, Araraquara won at Ituano in the battle of 1st and last place and then Campinas won at Catanduva on Sunday. The opening games felt like the best chance for a seeding upset with the lower ranked team hosting and teams having time to prepare, but Sampaio completed a top seed sweep on Monday and those teams will get the chance to advance at home.
The only undefeated team in the upper group in Uruguay is Malvin after 2 rounds of play with 25 de Agosto sitting winless and the other 4 teams at 1-1. In the lower group, Karina Acosta had 11 steals for Juventud de las Piedras, but they were not close to a win.
Australia
A busy NBL1 weekend included the end of the regular season in multiple divisions, including the South, which started with a game that only had pride at stake when the Hobart Chargers defeated their Tasmania rivals, the Launceston Tornadoes. There was plenty of jockeying at the top of the standings, starting with a key game on Saturday that saw the Waverley Falcons get 32 points from Carley Ernst but fall short and give the Mt. Gambier Pioneers the advantage for 2nd place. It only got worse for them on Sunday when they fell in overtime, letting Geelong climb above them for 3rd place. The Eltham Wildcats won their key game over the Diamond Valley Eagles to grab the last playoff spot. The Bendigo Braves were looking to finish an undefeated regular season and got 35 points from Megan McKay and a 14 point, 10 rebound, 12 assist triple-double from Kelly Wilson to win on Saturday against the Ballarat Miners, which got 33 points from Abbey Wehrung. It was much closer on Sunday, but they did just enough to the defeat the Knox Raiders. The Casey Cavaliers sat at the bottom of the tiebreaker for last place after losing to the Dandenong Rangers, which got 35 points from Amber Smith.
The regular season concluded in the North division and Rip City had the chance to influence the playoffs even from near the bottom of the standings, but the Townsville Flames won on Friday to secure the last spot, rendering the game against the Cairns Dolphins meaningless on Saturday. Courtney Woods had 31 points as the Northside Wizards secured the top seed. Behind them, the Logan Thunder had a preview of their quarterfinal with Ariana Moorer scoring 33 points for the Gold Coast Rollers, but Mikaela Ruef had 31 points and 22 rebounds in their win. Ruef pushed her final rebound average up to a ridiculous 22.6 as her 35 boards were more than the entire Southern Districts Spartans team in another Thunder win. The Rockhampton Cyclones got a 36 point game from Samantha Bowman to sit in 3rd place and then the Red City Roar surrendered 20 rebounds to Brittany Reeves in a loss to the Mackay Meteorettes the next day. Alison Gorrell had 34 points to end the season for the Ipswich Force.
1st place and last place in the West division met with one week to go in the regular season and Sarah Mortensen breezed to a 35 point game for the Cockburn Cougars. The South West Slammers then moved on to their last decent chance at a win, but fell to the Perth Redbacks. Darcee Garbin had 32 points in a Goldfields Giants loss. The East Perth Eagles has no games in the final round so they finished their season after a long slump.
One more week remains in the regular season in the East division and the Newcastle Falcons fell out of the tie for the lead as a 35 point from Nicole Munger was not enough for them to prevent a Maitland Mustangs comeback. The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles withstood a 32 point game from Lauren Nicholson to defeat the Sutherland Sharks and hold the top spot on their own. The two teams at the bottom of the standings met, but it was not enough for the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Spiders to get another win, although they did close their season in the next game with a 33 point game from Mizuki Wakamatsu. Above the Hills Hornets, the Penrith Panthers found themselves on the wrong side of a 47 point outburst from Emily Simons for the Norths Bears.
In the Central division, the Sturt Sabres almost had their perfect regular season spoiled by an Eastern Mavericks team just playing out their last game, but 33 points from Taylah Levy was not enough to complete the upset. Morgan Yaeger had 33 points for the Southern Tigers, giving them some momentum heading into the playoffs.
A couple of players got close to triple-doubles in Big V, but the big statlines came in scoring outbursts. Porsche Poole had 37 points for the Sherbrooke Suns in the top division. Sarah Scott hit the 30 point mark for the Wallan Panthers in the middle tier.
New Zealand
Another country whose league is quickly growing in stature and quality is New Zealand as having a short season during this part of the calendar has allowed teams to bring in high quality imports alongside their local players. This year, there were more changes to the league with players getting 6 fouls and a 2nd, shortened game in each matchup was introduced that allows the bench players on each team to get more playing time. All 5 teams started their season this week, opening on Wednesday with Ashten Prechtel collecting 21 rebounds in a Hoiho victory over the Queens. They also won on Saturday against the Kahu. The last two teams to start their seasons played on Sunday with McKenna Dale leading the Whai to a win over the Pouakai with 32 points.
FIBA Europe
The teams competing in Europe’s 2 pan-continental competitions were announced this week with the draw set for next month. Some key storylines were already reported ahead of the announcement, like 2022 EuroLeague champions Sopron not having the budget to enter either competition, but these announcements were final confirmations of the situations of various teams. The trend of recent seasons reversed as the number of teams interested either competition was reduced, meaning fewer qualifying games, and teams from Belarus and Russia are still not allowed.
EuroLeague
19 teams met the requirements for EuroLeague so there will be 3 qualifying matchups among 6 teams. With no regionalization in EuroCup this year, there were no geographical restrictions so returning Latvian champions Riga, the holder of the most trophies in this competition, Polish runners up Polkowice, and Hungarian bronze medalists DVTK will be seeded and will be drawn against either Romanian powerhouse Sepsi, British emerging force London Lions, or Besiktas, which will take Turkey’s 3rd spot with teams above them in the standings not taking the open place.
France and Spain each have three 3 spots with French teams no longer allowed to decline spots so champions Lyon, cup winners Landes, and runners up Villeneuve-d’Ascq are participating. Spanish champions Valencia and cup winners Zaragoza are joined by runners up Avenida. The 2 teams that met in the last Final, Fenerbahce and Cukurova, occupy Turkey’s direct places and Italy’s top 2 teams Schio and Virtus Bologna made their country the only other with guaranteed multi-team representation. Czech powerhouse USK Praha, Polish champions Lublin, and Hungarian runners up Gyor are the last 3 holders of direct places.
EuroCup
It is unclear whether the format change, economic factors, or other issues led to a significant decrease in teams trying to participate, but we can only hope that the new format will at least prevent teams from the same country being drawn against each other in the group stage. With only 48 teams meeting the requirements and 3 teams dropping down from EuroLeague qualifying, only 3 qualifying series need to be played. Earning seeds for that draw are Ruzomberok of Slovakia, Eleftheria Moschatou of Greece, and Uniao Sportiva of Portugal. They will be drawn against Turkey’s Antalya, Universitatea Cluj-Napoca of Romania, or Ostrava from the Czech Republic.
With their teams not being able to decline, France is the leader in direct spots with 5, going to Lattes Montpellier, Bourges, Roche, Angers, and Charleville-Mezieres. Qualifying results could lead to Turkey meeting or surpassing that total, but Galatasaray, Emlak Konut, Bursa, and Kayseri have direct spots. Spain also has 4 direct spots with Girona, Gernika, Sedis, and Estudiantes. Further down the country ranking, 3 countries have 3 direct spots. Brno, Chomutov, and KP Brno will be waiting to see if another Czech club can join them, Gorzow, Zaglebie Sosnowiec, and Arka Gdynia represent Poland with a 4th also possible, and Mechelen, Braine, and Namur carry the banner for Belgium.
Hungary has 2 teams in Szekszard and PEAC, but they could be joined by a team dropping down from qualifying. Reyer Venezia and Dinamo Sassari provide Italy with a pair of strong teams. Also getting 2 direct places are Israel, represented by Elitzur Ramla and Ramat Hasharon, and Luxembourg, which has its two finalists Grengewald Hueschtert and Diddeleng. Greek powerhouses Olympiacos and Panathanaikos are waiting to see if another team will join them, similar to the Slovakian finalists Piestanske Cajky and Slavia Banska Bystrica and Portuguese finalists GDESSA-Barreiro and Benfica. Romania only has Constanta for now, but that could grow to 3 teams while Caledonia Gladiators provide British representation from Scotland before qualifying results. Fribourg of Switzerland, Keltern of Germany, Kibirkstis of Lithuania, and Ragusa of Croatia are the only teams from their countries.
Women's Basketball News and Opinions 