Americas
One quarterfinal series was finally resolved in Puerto Rico when the lights came back on in Hatillo and the hosts advanced past Morovis on Tuesday. The other series was finally able to resume on Thursday and Moca avoided elimination against Santurce, setting up a deciding game on Friday that was close throughout before Moca won. The semifinals also started as Carolina edged Hatillo, but the series was evened up after a close game on Saturday. Carolina took the advantage when they returned home for the next game on Monday. The other series was able to start on Sunday and well-rested Manati did manage to edge Moca.
Malvin returned from continental play to defeat Aguada in Game 1 of the finals in Uruguay on Saturday. The rest of the games were on Sunday, including the third place series that saw Agustina Bazan record a 13 point, 16 rebound, 12 assist triple-double to make sure that Yale won at Defensor Sporting. In the consolation bracket, Hebraica Macabi finished off Remeros Mercedes while Lagomar had a closer game against 25 de Agosto, but prevailed.
It was the second week of competition in Argentina, which returned to the rules of basketball in place elsewhere after agreeing to participate in a special experiment last season. The league also has one fewer team than last season, but split them into two regional groups again. Stefania Lucero had 32 points to make sure that Olimpico defeated Montmartre in overtime on Saturday.
Around Europe
More top divisions started play this week, including Croatia, where Shaniya Jones started her professional career with a 43 point effort in a loss. Germany’s top league started play with Mirna Paunovic making her first appearance since turning 47 years old. Iceland’s league started play and there are often some impressive individual performances. This week, that included Emilie Hesseldal scoring 31 points, Raquel Laneiro having a 25 point, 11 rebound, 11 assist triple-double, and Maddie Sutton grabbing 21 rebounds. Justina King had 34 points in her first professional league game in Portugal’s top tier. Natasa Popovic had 30 points during Serbia’s opening weekend. Leagues also started play in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Slovenia, and Switzerland. Cup games before league play started in some countries as well, like Albania, Cyprus, and Malta.
Notable Individual Performances
There are often impressive statlines from around the world that will be highlighted here each week if they are not part of another section. Viktoria Balaban had a 33 points game for Neptunas in Lithuania. In Belgium, Ine Joris had 30 points for Braine, which Cate Reese topped the next day with 36 points for Mechelen. Luxembourg is a reliable place to find big statlines as Tatsiana Likhtarovich and Martha Burse had 31 point games in losses. Mikayla Ferenz led all scorers with 38 points as Alexia Allesch grabbed 20 rebounds in her professional debut while Deijah Blanks had 35 points for their opponents.
The Chase for Promotion
The teams in France’s second division will start their chase for the lone spot up for grabs in the top division next weekend, but they did play in the first round of the cup, which will get more coverage next round when some top flight teams join the fray. The second divisions did begin play in Germany, Serbia, and Spain.
Turkey’s second division had another round that felt a lot more like the fun competition it can be with big statistical outputs in a number of games. With no foreign player to oppose her, Zakyia Weathersby quickly put up 30 points in 23 minutes for Edremit. Aliyah Collier had 36 points in Bodrum’s win. Ionna McKenzie also had a big effort in a win with 31 points for Cerkezkoy. The most spectacular game was the one on Sunday after Aliyah Maczyk put up 44 points in 32 minutes as her team had an incredible start to the second half, meaning that Kamaria McDaniel’s 50 points were not enough.
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