Americas
With one series in Mexico already over after a sweep last week, the rest of the series reached their conclusions with Game 5s set for Wednesday. Verazcruz tried one more comeback to stave off elimination against Jalisco, but lost. Xalapa finished their seeding upset without needing to go back to Aguascalientes. Queretaro avoided elimination, sending the series back to Monterrey on Saturday and they won again. That meant a Game 7 on Sunday that Monterrey won at home to advance.
The playoffs continued in Brazil with the quarterfinals concluding. Santo Andre finished off Blumenau on Wednesday. The surprise then came on Thursday when last place Ituano won at Araraquara, but the top seed bounced back on Saturday to advance. The other two series were sweeps after Campinas defeated Catanduva on Sunday and Sampaio won against Mesquita on Monday.
With the upper group needing to play more games, the lower group in Uruguay had the week off from play. On Friday, Yale defeated Hebraica Macabi in a battle of 1-1 teams. Aguada kept 25 Agosto winless in this stage on Saturday. Malvin stayed undefeated on Sunday with a win over Defensor Sporting.
Australia
The remaining NBL1 divisions that did not finish the regular season last week did so this weekend. That included the West division, which saw the top seed Cockburn Cougars get 31 points from Sarah Mortensen in a win over the Eastern Suns. Behind them, the Willetton Tigers got 21 rebounds from Alex Sharp to leave the South West Slammers winless this campaign. Also at the bottom of the standings, the Perth Redbacks kept their winning streak going, but could not flip a tiebreaker against the Goldfields Giants, which got 30 points from Darcee Garbin.
In the East division, they Sydney Comets got Shyla Heal back for a 30 point effort in an overtime win over the Albury-Wodonga Bandits for playoff positioning, but without her the next night, they fell to the North Bears, who were led by Jolene Anderson’s 31 points. The Bandits did get a 16 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double from Mikayla Pivec in a win over the Maitland Mustangs the next day. Lauren Nicholson had 32 points for the Sutherland Sharks as they will face the youngsters next, opponents who have not played as a team since June 29th because of youth national team competitions. In a battle of eliminated teams, Bianca Dufelmeier had 30 points for the Canberra Nationals in a win over the Illawarra Hawks.
Playoffs started in the other divisions as the South has its eight teams split into brackets for the top and bottom halves. The bottom four teams faced each other on Saturday with elimination on the line. The 8th place Eltham Wildcats sent the 5th place Frankston Blues packing and the 7th place Ringwood Hawks won against the 6th place Sandringham Sabres. There was a seeding upset in the other bracket too when Geelong won at Mt. Gambier on Friday. Top seed Bendigo did get a home win on Saturday against the Waverley Falcons. The winners in the upper bracket moved on to the semifinals with the losers playing the winners from the other bracket with elimination on the line.
The North division just has one bracket for its eight playoff teams and all the quarterfinals were played on Saturday. The 4-5 game went to the host South West Metro Pirates against the Southern Districts Spartans. Their next opponent is the top seed Northside Wizards after their win over the Townsville Flames. The 2nd place Logan Thunder had a closer game, but another 26 rebounds from Mikaela Ruef helped them past the Gold Coast Rollers. Samantha Bowman had 21 rebounds for the Rockhampton Cyclones to get them a win over the Darwin Salties, which got 30 points from Catherine MacGregor, but finished their fade down the stretch.
The Central division started their playoffs with their five team format. The elimination game was played on Sunday with the 5th place South Adelaide Panthers getting 30 points from Ashleigh Spencer to knock out the 4th place North Adelaide Rockets. They face the 2nd place Southern Tigers, who lost on Saturday, next. The winner of the other game, the 3rd place Norwood Flames, will now face the top seed Sturt Sabres for a direct spot in the championship game.
It was the end of the regular season in the middle division in Big V. The Warrnambool Mermaids won both games to finish at the top of the standings ahead of the Bellarine Storm while also halting the momentum of the Warrandyte Venom, which had just recorded all four of their wins this season in the previous four games. Amanda Paschal had 33 points for Wyndham as the top division still has two weeks of play. The bottom tier will finish next weekend as Kylah Collins scored 33 points for the Wallan Panthers.
New Zealand
It was a quieter second week of play in the league with only two games, both featuring the Kahu. They defeated the Pouakai on Wednesday, but 34 points from IImar’I Thomas was not enough on Sunday when they lost to the Queens.
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