World of Basketball December 25th

Asia

It was a full weekend of league play in Japan after the cup was contested, starting with an Iris sweep of the Vickies. There two splits, one between the Egrets and Rabbits and the other between the Cougars and the Sunshine Rabbits. The Antelopes swept the Koalas to stay perfect. Besides the Iris, the Red Wave and Sunflowers are still lurking behind them after sweeps of the Aranmare and the Wings respectively and the Magic are a game back after their sweep of the Queen Bees.

Another week of games in South Korea started on Wednesday with Woori Bank edging BNK. On Thursday, Hana Bank defeated the S-Birds to continue jostling for the playoffs. Woori Bank won again on Friday against the Blue Minx. The Stars played their first game on Saturday and defeated BNK. The S-Birds surprised the Blue Minx on Sunday and the Stars won the holiday game on Monday against Woori Bank to pull even with them in the standings.

Before the top division resumed play, the second division finished their first round robin in Kazakhstan. Zhetisu is undefeated while their reserve team is winless as a result of a battle of reserve teams on Tuesday that saw Kamila Khatinova record a 25 point, 12 rebound, 11 assist triple-double for Okzhetpes’s reserves. Aydana Nurmakhambetova had 22 rebounds in a game where she did not score. The top division started play in the same location on Saturday as the standings have tightened up after Aktobe’s win over Astana created a three-way tie with both of them as well as Turan. Elizaveta Mitina had a 32 point effort in a game where her teammate Yana Kotova had 22 rebounds. Ganna Rulyova had a 23 rebound game and Kristina Goncharuk dished out 15 assists in one of her appearances.

There were more momentous results in a busy week in China. Guangdong had a narrow loss against leaders Inner Mongolia, but that dropped them back into a tie with Shanxi for the first round bye in the playoffs. After a tough loss to Beijing, Hebei had two more impressive efforts, a surprising win over Jiangsu and pushing Sichuan all game long before losing. Below them, Fujian’s win streak has kept them in the playoff chase.

Around Europe

The Adriatic finished their first stage on Wednesday, setting up the group of the top remaining teams and Celje and Buducnost are still undefeated. It was a quiet week in the Baltic, but Ieva Knyziene had 22 rebounds in a Lithuanian second division game. Cup games were played in Greece over the weekend with Panathinaikos having the edge on their rivals Olympiacos again so far this season. It was a quiet week in Ukraine’s second division with two series and Oleksandra Tynshchuk had a 31 point game and Anastasia Shepeliuk reached the 32 point mark.

Notable Individual Performances

Jovana Jovovic had a 33 point game in Serbia, but Vrbas remained in last place. Becca Wann-Taylor had a 21 rebound game in Portugal. In Luxembourg, Karly Murphy had a 35 point game and Nicole Fransson grabbed 20 rebounds. Mar’Shay Moore turned in a 35 point effort in Kosovo. Destiny Littleton had a 34 point game in Germany for Saarlouis in a dramatic comeback. In Finland, Sam Breen and Carmen Tyson-Thomas each had 31 points.