Americas
The championship came down to one deciding game in Brazil on Thursday. Sampaio was looking to complete their late season run, but Araraquara had nearly 5,000 fans at home and the top seed surged out of halftime on their way to the title.
Both groups were in action in Uruguay and Hebraica Macabi climbed back out of last place by defeating 25 de Agosto and flipping the tiebreaker. The other game on Saturday also affected the standings with Defensor Sporting’s win keeping them ahead of Yale. Malvin’s strong second half made it certain that they would be alone at the top of the standings after their win over Aguada. In the lower group, Lagomar not only handed Remeros Mercedes their first loss in this phase, but also definitively captured the tiebreaker by doubling up the opponents on Saturday. This double round-robin ended on Sunday with Juventud de las Piedras getting crushed in the second half by Urunday Universitario to finish winless.
Games continued in Puerto Rico, starting last Monday with Manati continuing to look strong in a win over Hatillo. Lares finally won on Tuesday, knocking Carolina down a peg while Moca defeated Santurce. Morovis started well with their recent momentum, but Isabela was stronger for the rest of the game on Wednesday. All of the other teams played on Thursday before the All Star break. Lares could not maintain the momentum against Hatillo, Santurce’s strong second half got them past Carolina, and Alexis Jennings grabbed 20 rebounds for Moca, but Manati has a clear lead at the pause after another win. The game was on Saturday in Isabela and Dariauna Lewis won MVP after leading her team to victory. The first game after the break was on Monday and Lewis kept her momentum even though Hatillo was down an import, providing 36 points and 20 rebounds in a win over Lares.
New Zealand
It was the last week of the regular season and the Pouakai were ready to finish on Thursday, although they wanted a win to finish off their strong showing in the reserve league. The Queens also shifted their lineup to get a win and played Chrislyn Carr and Stella Beck over 40 minutes to secure the sweep, meaning that all the extra minutes for Esra McGoldrick, Natalie Burton, and Kennedy Leonard, who dished out 17 assists in the main game, did not help. On Friday, the one minute overtime came into effect in the reserve league, helping Alyssa Hirawani just get past 40 minutes for the Whai, who lost that game, but still won the main game despite 30 points from Zoe Richards for the Hoiho. The Queens did not play around with their lineup on Saturday, although Grace Hunter did play over 40 minutes, but 34 points from Chrislyn Carr were not enough against the Kahu. McKenna Dale had 33 points and Mikayla Cowling had 32 points for the Whai on Monday, but Tess Madgen poured in 37 points for the Kahu to win.
South Korea
The annual draft was conducted on Monday with players of Korean heritage looking to enter the league. The lottery was completed first to set the order and the Stars got the first pick, followed by Hana Bank, which promptly traded their pick to BNK, the S-Birds, the Blue Minx, BNK, and Woori Bank. The draft lacked some of the intrigue of last year, but the prospects had completed their tryout process before selection. The top pick was an excellent storyline as Ko Hyeon-Ji was picked by the same franchise that her mother previously represented. Only one foreign-based player applied for the draft as Katie Timmerman just finished her career at Concordia and was taken 8th by the S-Birds.
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