World of Basketball February 26th

Asia-Oceania

After a long break, the season resumed in Japan and the Magic and Cougars split games on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the series ran Saturday-Sunday, including the two Toyota teams facing off with the Antelopes narrowly sweeping the Sunshine Rabbits. The Iris and Sunflowers are still chasing the lead after sweeps over the Koalas and Vickies. The Red Wave is also lurking after a sweep of the Queen Bees while the Wings swept the Egrets and the Aranmare and Rabbits split their matchups.

Only three games remain in South Korea’s regular season after the last full week of games. The Blue Minx, which have been firmly locked into the three seed for a while, defeated the S-Birds on Wednesday. Hana Bank’s narrow win over BNK on Thursday helped them secure the last playoff spot. The S-Birds could not keep up after Park Ji-Hyun had 32 points in Woori Bank’s win on Friday. The Stars continued their preparation for the playoffs at the top seed with a win over the Blue Minx on Saturday. Woori Bank’s loss to BNK on Sunday did not matter since they were locked into the two seed. The S-Birds did defeat Hana Bank on Monday, but they were already out of the chase.

It was a busy week in Kazakhstan with the second division starting another set of games on Monday and the cup was played up until the medal games. Unlike the league, no foreign players are allowed in the cup so its results will not be covered here.

A full week of games in China did not lead to much movement in the standings with Inner Mongolia and Sichuan still tied at the top of the standings in the loss column, followed by Jiangsu and Guangdong. Liaoning’s lead on Fujian for the last playoff place is one game in the win column.

It was another two-round week in North West Tasmania. Wynyard and Penguin won both games to stayed tied in the lead, but Devonport’s loss to Ulverstone dropped them a game back in the early going. Latrobe’s winless week pushed them from the lead to the top of a group looking to get into the top half. Smithton remains winless and fell two games back of that pack.

Mexico

Series this weekend were Friday-Saturday ahead of a busy week. The top and bottom teams in the North met with Libelulas completing the expected sweep of Husky’s. Mineras is right behind them after two wins over Toritas. Mieleras remained undefeated in the South with a pair of wins over Cinnamon. Avispas sits behind them after two wins over Blueskas.

Around Europe

Partizani picked up their first win of the unified Albania-Kosovo competition while Bashkimi is still undefeated and Jade Williams was the leading scorer with 32 points. Luize Septe took advantage of facing the lone winless team in the Baltic to record a 5×5 game of 16 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 6 blocks, and 5 steals. Celje handed Buducnost their first loss in the Adriatic with the teams expected to meet to decide the championship. The Alpe Adria Cup returned as well this weekend and Slavia Banska Bystrica continued to roll with Split splitting their games as well as Maribor while Klosterneuburg Duchesses losing twice. In the other group, Tresnjevka won both their games while St. Polten lost twice and Piestanske Cajky and Triglav split. With cup play starting in Malta, Jose-Ann Johnson had a 22 rebound game.

Chase for Promotion

It was a busy week in Turkey’s second division with some makeup games, but there was no movement at the top of the standings. Chanel Mokango had a 38 point, 21 rebound game while Mina Djordjevic also grabbed 21 boards in one of her games. Kamaria McDaniel and Tearra Banks each scored 35 points and Aliyah Collier had 34 points. Schekinah Bimpa had a 21 rebound game in the second division in Portugal. In Lithuania’s second division, Justina Leskauskaite scored 30 points and Kristina Grige grabbed 20 rebounds. In Iceland’s second division, Emese Vida had 30 points while Tijana Raca had 35 points in a game where Shameka McNeill had 38 points in the loss. Jade Phillips had a 36 point game in France’s second division.

Notable Individual Performances

Sara Loomis had a 30 point game in Switzerland. Mina Djordjevic had a 32 point game in Serbia. Becca Wann-Taylor reached the 31 point mark in Portugal. Emma Harloff had a 31 point game in Norway. Ljube Andric grabbed 22 rebounds in Montenegro. Rusu Vladislava had a 32 point game in Moldova. Martha Burse had a 48 point game to mark the start of the second stage in Luxembourg. Mar’Shay Moore had 45 points, but it was not enough for a win in Kosovo. Courtney Hurt had 35 points in an overtime win in Israel. In one game in Iceland, Keira Robinson had a 20 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist triple-double and Selena Lott had a 40 point effort. Alison Lewis had a 30 point game in Germany. IImar’I Thomas had a 31 point game in Finland. Eleni Mavroudi had a 10 point, 15 rebound, 11 assist triple-double in Cyprus.