World of Basketball January 15th

Asia

It was All Star Weekend in Japan with two games on Sunday to celebrate the top players and prepare for national team play next month. After last week’s All Star festivities, a half round of games was played in South Korea. Hana Bank defeated BNK on Saturday. The top two teams met on Sunday with the top spot on the line and Park Jisu had 21 rebounds to help the Stars get past Woori Bank. The final three quarters on Monday were a dreadful affair with little offense on display, but the S-Birds did defeat the Blue Minx.

Around Europe

The first week of the second stage of the Adriatic was played and Celje got a 11 point, 13 rebound, 10 assist triple-double from Lea Bertelme to stay undefeated alongside Buducnost. Riga was threatened with its first loss in the Baltic, but controlled the second half to stay perfect. Their opponents Kibirkstis also lost to Neptunas, which got 31 points from Viktoria Balaban. Cassidy Mihalko was the week’s leading scorer with 32 points. There was a shocking decision in Slovakia this week when Young Angels Kosice decided to forfeit the last game of the double round-robin to finish in 5th place and settle in the lower group. That result means that Piestanske Cajky will not carry their only loss into the upper group and in games that were played, Dominika Urbanova had a 32 point effort. It was primarily a cup weekend in Portugal and Becca Wann-Taylor had 38 points in her team’s loss a day after a 37 point game in a league win. The British cup continued and Idil Turk had 35 points in a win that saw Brooke Bjelko score 31 points for the opposition. The cup started in Albania and Jaelyn Tweedy had 41 points and 12 steals with her teammate Selena Kirberg’s 33 points also being enough to win the game.

Chase for Promotion

Aliyah Mazyck was the leading scorer in Turkey’s second division with 33 points, missing out on a triple-double, but Aliyah Collier was close to a quadruple-double before turning in a 31 point effort, and Angela Tompkins reached the 30 point mark. Cesarina Capellan had 35 point game in Spain’s third division as the first round-robin is complete in both groups. Ke’Vonshaye Stackhouse had a 37 point game in Portugal’s second division. Lithuania’s second division had a 34 point game from Rita Zilinskaite and a 32 point game from Olga Fomina that came in a loss where Kristina Grige had 23 rebounds on the other side. Amaiquen Siciliano had a 30 point game in Italy’s second division. Erin Antosh had a 30 point game in Germany’s second division.

Notable Individual Performances

Klara Lundquist and Maria Jespersen each had 35 points in the same game for Sodertalje in Sweden. Tess Amundsen had a 30 point game and Dariauna Lewis grabbed 21 rebounds. Natalie Villaflor had a 33 point game in Norway while Stine Austgulen’s 36 point game was more than enough to outscore the opposition. Nicole Fransson had 21 rebounds in Luxembourg while Eden Nibbelink had 20 boards and Samantha Logic dished out 18 assists. A double round in Kosovo included a 25 point, 13 rebound, 11 assist triple-double from Saranda Daci. Drew Edelman had 32 points and Gili Eisner had 20 assists and the first round-robin finished in Israel ahead of the reintroduction of foreigners with Elitzur Ramla remaining undefeated. Kennedy Gavin had the highest scoring game in Greece with 33 points while Keiunna Walker had 32 points and Morgan Jones had 31 points for the same team in another game. Taru Tuukkanen scored 14 points her first game as a 46 year old in Finland. Kylie Meadows grabbed 20 rebounds in Cyprus. Ana Leko had a 19 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist in the Bosnian league. Sam Van Buggenhout had 35 points in Belgium and Victaria Saxton reached the 33 point mark.