World of Basketball December 11th

Asia

Another week of games on the usual schedule started in South Korea with Woori Bank’s win over the S-Birds on Wednesday. The Stars matched them with a win over BNK on Thursday. The S-Birds threatened a major upset on Friday, but lost to Woori Bank. The Blue Minx were happy to get a key player back on Saturday, but Park Ji-Su had 22 rebounds in a Stars victory. Hana Bank’s only game was on Sunday when they defeated BNK. Woori Bank returned to the lead in the win column after their Monday win over the S-Birds.

All of the teams in China completed the first round robin and started on the second half of their schedules. Jiangsu held on to a win in overtime against Shanxi, but lost to Inner Mongolia to stay below the two leaders. They and a few other teams will be assessing what they need to do to compete later in the season after the break. Guangdong took advantage of two of the other teams in contention losing to hold on to the last bye spot for now. With the teams at the bottom of the standings on long losing streaks, Hebei and Hubei taking care of business against those foes has left them in the last two playoff spots.

Around Europe

Riga gained a game on the chase pack of five Lithuanian teams in the Baltic as the other Latvian teams continue to struggle. The last two undefeated teams in Lithuania’s second division met with Ugne Grigaliunaite’s 39 point effort making the difference. Rita Zilinskaite had 33 points for the other team with title aspirations there early. The domestic league finally started in Montenegro with a pair of games. 35 points and 20 rebounds from Tatiana Cecoi was not enough for her team in Moldova’s cup. Cup games were also played in Iceland and Jordan Danberry had a 48 point, 10 rebound, 11 steal triple-double in a loss, the same problem facing Jonina Karlsdottir after a 15 point, 11 rebound, 12 assist effort. In the top division, Katarzyna Trzeciak had 31 points and Lore Devos had 37 points.

Chase for Promotion

Zamora lost a game for the first time this season in Spain’s second division, which had two full rounds of games. Bre’Amber Scott had a 31 point game. Sofia Sousa had 32 points in a game in Portugal’s second division that had Milena Santos grabbing 20 rebounds and Quintessa Zamolyi had a 20 rebound game too. Beatrice Attura had a 30 point game in Italy’s second division. Kayla Simmons had a 38 point game in Germany’s second division while Abbey Hoff had 31 points. Mondeville’s win in France’s second division left Strasbourg with a three game deficit to safety.

There was a full weekend of games in Ukraine’s second division and Kateryna Shtyk had a 23 point, 10 rebound, 12 assist triple-double while her teammate Elizaveta Safonova had 33 points to win one game, but young Anna Tonkonozhko had 31 points the next day to salvage a split. Rebounds were the story in a close game as Anastasia Rybas had 21 and Kateryna Korotyuk had 20 to help their team win. An overtime game saw Anastasia Shepeliuk pour in 38 points, but the youngster’s team lost when the even younger Oleksandra Tynshchuk scored 30 points. Anastasia Kostohlod also had a 30 point game.

There were plenty of big games in Turkey’s second division again as Danielle Adams had 36 points, but Cukurova’s reserve team lost to Fenerbahce’s reserve team ahead of the team’s senior squads meeting again. Nobody scored more points than Kamaria McDaniel as her 48 points were needed to get Yalova the win with Chanel Mokango scoring 33 points on the other side. There were also dueling triple-doubles as Aliyah Collier had 19 points, 18 rebounds, and 12 assists to get Bodrum a win when Maya Caldwell had 22 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists for Bogazici. Aliyah Maczyk had 36 points and Zakyia Weathersby and Lauren Ebo each had 22 rebounds.

Notable Individual Performances

In Switzerland, Virginie Bruchez had 32 points and Amaya Scott had 33 points. Maria Felixova had 20 and 21 rebound games in Slovakia despite a pair of tough losses. Alexis Cortez had a 32 point game in Romania. A double round in Portugal included a 33 point game from Genesis Correa. A battle in Norway had Natalie Villaflor and Stine Austgulen each having 31 points while Aurora Sorbye had a 36 point game. Lyndsey Whilby had a 39 point game in Malta. After cup games midweek in Luxembourg, Esmeralda Skrijelj had a 13 point, 11 rebound, 12 assist triple-double, Karly Murphy had 22 rebounds, and Martha Burse had 33 points in a game that saw Caitlyn Jones score 36 points on the other side.

The end of the first double round-robin in Kosovo included Mar’Shay Moore scoring 43 points and Sarah Mgbeike had 34 points. Amit Terner had 30 points in Israel. Darcy Rees had 21 rebounds in the British league. In Finland, IImar’I Thomas had 33 points as her team did not let up against the academy of youth players and Da’Nasia Hood had 32 points. Trine Kasemagi had 31 points in Estonia. In the Czech Republic, Pamela-Therese Effangova had 30 points and Kyah Proctor had 31 points. Shaniya Jones had a 38 point game in Croatia. Aleksandra Begenesic had a 20 rebound game in the Bosnian league. Bernada Rreshpja had 41 points, which was enough to defeat the other team and added 19 rebounds and 11 steals for good measure while A’lexxus Davis had 20 rebounds to secure a win in Albania.