Mexico
The emergence of a strong professional league in Mexico over the past two seasons had hurt the more established national league, but the older league started on Saturday having bolstered their ranks by expanding to 10 teams. There is a 20 game schedule split into 10 series of 2 games on consecutive days in the same location that mostly involves play within the northern and southern zones. All the series ended in sweeps with the Avispas taking the pair of games from Blueskas, the Mineras getting the best of the Toritas, the Libelulas rolling past the Husky’s, and the Mieleras winning against Cinnamon. The federation signaled their support of the league by fielding the U-18 national team in the competition and the youngsters lost to the Quetzales twice.
Asia
Another full week of games was played in South Korea with the S-Birds defeating Hana Bank on Wednesday. Kim Dan-Bi had 32 points on Thursday in Woori Bank’s win over the Blue Minx. It was first versus worst on Friday and the Stars breezed past BNK. Their lead increased in the loss column on Saturday when Kim Dan-Bi’s 40 points were not enough for Woori Bank in an overtime loss to the S-Birds. The Blue Minx defeated Hana Bank on Sunday. The S-Birds completed an impressive sweep with their win over BNK on Monday.
Another set of games was played in Kazakhstan starting on Friday in two locations. Astana fell back into a tie for the lead after Nadezhda Yakovleva scored 30 points against them. Ganna Rulyova had 30 points to help Turan move into that tie. Alexsandra Petelina had the highest scoring game with 40 points on Monday. Yana Kotova had a 32 point game and Daria Surkova hit the 30 point mark.
It was the second weekend of games in Taiwan and the same results occurred after a second round-robin. Taiyuan Textile is undefeated with Cathay Life in second place, Chunghwa Telecom in third place, and Taipower at the rear without a win.
Around Europe
The men’s competition has struggled to get off the ground, but the combined Albania-Kosovo competition started on Tuesday on the women’s side. Asianae Johnson had 31 points in Prishtina’s win and Bashkimi also won representing Kosovo while Tirana was the only Albanian team to win. Bernada Rreshpja had 32 points in Albanian domestic league play during the weekend. Another unified competition is the cup tournament between teams from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Slovak representatives fared better this year, although hosts Piestanske Cajky fell to Brno in the final. All the games on this last day ended up being cross-national with Slavia Banska Bystrica edging Chomutov for third place, Hradec Kralove defeating Ruzomberok for 5th place, and KP Brno prevailing in the battle of winless teams against Samorin for 7th place. Riga increased their lead in the loss column in the Baltic by a game while Ugne Grigaliunaite was the week’s leading scorer with 30 points. Fribourg won the cup in Switzerland and London Lions won the British cup.
Chase for Promotion
Araia Pena had a 42 point game in Spain’s third division. Ke’Vonshaye Stackhouse had a 32 point game in Portugal’s second division. Ugne Kucinskaite had a 35 point game in Lithuania’s second division. Derthona is all alone in the lead in their half of Italy’s second division after San Giovanni Valdarno lost while Roseto lost their lead in the other group after losing while Udine won. Silvia Colognesi had a 21 rebound game and Amaiquen Siciliano turned in a 31 point effort. There were multiple big games in Iceland’s second division as Michaela Porter had 37 points, Emese Vida had 21 rebounds, and Shameka McNeill had 46 points, but it was not enough as the other team had multiple players step up, led by Darina Khomenska with 32 points. The top two teams in France’s second division met with Aulnoye staying ahead of Montbrison while Champagne Chalons-Reims and Feytiat lost to fall two full games behind the last playoff spot.
It was a double round week in Turkey’s second division so there were plenty of big statistical outputs. Edremit lost to a team outside the top trio so they fell a game behind Bodrum, which is still a game behind Zonguldak. The leaders leaned on Sasha Goodlett more heavily than usual as she had 37 points to make sure that they got that second win, offsetting Aliyah Mazyck’s 31 point game. Angela Tompkins had the highest scoring game of any individual with a 47 point effort. Danielle Adams reached the 41 point mark. Kamaria McDaniel had 39 points in a game where Salih Mandiraci had 34 points for the opposition. Tearra Banks scored 34 points in a game where Ionna McKenzie had 21 rebounds. An overtime game saw Lauren Ebo turn in a 35 point, 20 rebound effort to get her team the win while Cierra Dillard had 32 points in the loss.
Notable Individual Performances
Oksana Fastova had 35 and 32 point games in Ukraine while Olena Sambuska reached the 30 point mark once and Krystyna Filevych had a 20 rebound game. A double round week in Sweden included a 30 point game from Jess Kelliher. Tina Tomsic had a 30 point game in Slovenia. In Luxembourg, Ehis Etute had a 30 point game as she gets ready to head to Oregon and Eden Nibbelink had a 33 point game. Annija Zvirgzdina had a 25 rebound game in Latvia. A double round in Finland saw Sam Breen turn in 30 and 31 point games while Cierra Walker had a 37 point game and Saana Kujala had a 30 point game. In Cyprus, Panagiota Themistokleous had a 21 rebound game in a cup loss and then 33 points in a league loss that saw Sara Dickey score 40 points for the other team. In Croatia, Iva Todoric had a 14 point, 11 rebound, 11 assist triple-double and Shaniya Jones scored 37 points. In the Bosnian league, Ajla Selimovic had a 34 point game and Ksenija Kuzmanovic had 34 points in a game that saw her teammate Milica Ignjatic grab 23 rebounds while Katarina Mihalj hit the 40 point mark.
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