World of Basketball April 8th

Asia

The semifinals were played in Japan this weekend with a single site hosting the round. Iris defeated Sunflowers twice without much trouble, but the other series needed a deciding game on Monday. The Red Wave had won on Saturday behind a 30 point game from Yuki Miyazawa and a 17 assist effort from Rui Machida. The Magic, which had to take the longer path through the playoffs, bounced back and won on Sunday. The Red Wave got back to showing themselves to be the top seed in the clincher, taking a big lead early and coasting by a substantial margin.

There was a week of play in Kazakhstan’s second division starting last Monday and running until Friday. Symbat Shalkarova had the standout scoring performance with 32 points in Shmykent’s final game. The team is still in second place and could not hand Zhetisu their first loss. The league leaders still have not gotten a win from their reserve team, but their first team almost lost to Okzhetpes’s reserve team, which had an excellent week to pull even with Karaganda in the standings after a decisive win in their battle on Thursday.

This phase wrapped up in Taiwan over the weekend. Foreign players will probably make the difference at some point, but that did not happen in this round of games with Cathay Life cruising past Taiyuan Textile to finish a perfect week and flipping the tiebreaker for the phase firmly to their advantage. Taiwan Power and Chunghwa Telecom split their games over the two weekends to finish tied.

The finals are set in China after both semifinals series ended in sweeps. Each series started on Wednesday with neither Guangdong nor Jiangsu getting close to opening home wins that would give them more hope for the road games. Sichuan did have slightly more trouble on Saturday, but did get the sweep over Guangdong while Inner Mongolia had an easier time advancing past Jiangsu. Inner Mongolia will host the first two games of the best of five finals in the upcoming week.

Australia

Two more conferences started play in NBL1 with the East, intended for teams in New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, and the South, mainly including teams from Victoria and Tasmania, had busy weeks. Top performances in the East included Tahlia Tupaea’s 33 point game, Davida Dale’s 31 point game in a tough loss, demonstrated by Albury Wodonga’s strength in their other game that saw Lauren Jackson score 33 points and Mikayla Pivec grab 20 rebounds. In the South, Alicia Froling had 31 and 33 point games and Maddison Rocci had a 33 point game.

In terms of conferences that had already started play, the West had another busy week. Sami Whitcomb warmed up for the WNBA season with a 31 point effort, Laci Hawthorne had a 36 point game in a tough loss, and Marnelle Garraud, who was allowed to join the Lakeside Lightning early with her team in Spain already having their fate sealed, opened with a 30 point game. In the Central conference, Casey Samuels had a 20 point, 11 rebound, 11 assist triple-double as Central Districts is one of two undefeated teams.

Smithton finally got their first win in North West Tasmania, getting the better of Burnie. Devonport stayed in the lead with a win over Penguin and Latrobe withstood a 32 point game from Sharna Appleby and Somerset to stay right behind them. Wynyard stayed in the top half with a win over Ulverstone.

Also starting this week was the top division of Big V, the league structure for clubs in Victoria below the NBL1 level. Chloe Hildebrand had the highest scoring game on Saturday with a 32 point effort and Taylor Edwards matched that on Sunday. The two divisions below have merged into a single competition this year with two weekends of play already complete and early big games included a 21 rebound game from Maddie Geislinger, who had a 20 rebound game in this round, and a 37 point game from Shannon Powell-Ross.

Americas

After the holiday weekend and plenty of controversy about violence on the court, the All Star game was played on Wednesday in Mexico. The North ended up defeating the South 84-68. The quarterfinals resumed on Saturday and Mieleras finished their sweep over Toritas early. Libelulas joined them by finishing a sweep of Blueskas on Sunday. There were two series that were tied so they had games on both Saturday and Sunday. Cinnamon won both of their home games to advance past Mineras. With the break spent focusing on their previous matchup, Quetzales did defeat Avispas twice to progress.

There was an exciting game in Brazil on Tuesday with Corinthians wiping out Ituano’s early lead to win on the road. On Wednesday, Sao Jose defeated Campinas and then Araraquara rolled past Blumenau. Catanduva defeated Ponta Grossa on Thursday. It took overtime to decide the first game on Friday before Santo Andre defeated Corinthians and Ituano edged Sampaio. Saturday’s games lacked any such drama after Mesquita’s win over Sao Jose and Araraquara’s win over Ponta Grossa. Sampaio defeated Campinas on Sunday. There were two games on Monday as Blumenau won at Santo Andre and Ituano had an easy win over Catanduva.

Around Europe

The expected final matchup happened in the unified Albania-Kosovo competition after the semifinals last Monday that featured Adrienne GodBold grabbing 28 rebounds. Before the big game on Tuesday, Tirana defeated Penza to make sure that the top three places were not taken by the teams from Kosovo. Hosts Prishtina then surprised Bashkimi with a fairly easy win ahead of the resumption of the domestic finals between the teams. The result was reversed when they met on Friday with Bashkimi taking a commanding lead with another win. Albania’s league continued with Dy’mond McElrath scoring 39 points and Bernada Rreshpja’s 47 points were more than enough to win her game by herself.

The cup final was played on Saturday in Switzerland as a break from the playoffs and Fribourg won as expected against Troistorrents. Bianca Nan had a 32 point game in Romania’s consolation bracket. Alexia Allesch had a 38 point effort in a loss to start the playoffs in Luxembourg. The finals started in Israel and the first game went to overtime before Jennie Simms got her team the win with a 28 point, 13 rebound, 11 assist triple-double even though Stasha Carey had 31 points on the other side. There was plenty of excitement to start the semifinals in Finland as II’marI Thomas had 42 points to offset a 30 point game from Shaiquel McGruder in the first game, but Doniyah Cliney scored 30 points to even the series. In the other series, Jade Vega had 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in a loss, but the team also evened the series despite a 33 point game from Randi Brown. St. Polten completed a sweep for the championship in Austria.

Chase for Promotion

Many games were skipped in Ukraine’s second division with the championship set for next weekend, but Olga Borovets did have a 33 point game. Mia Djorovic had a 34 point game in Serbia’s second division. The battle to avoid last place in Romania’s second division had Iustina-Gabriela Hurmuz scoring 33 points in a loss. Kristina Grige had a 23 rebound game in Lithuania’s second division. In Italy’s second division, Giulia Sorrentino had a 31 point game. Sierra Smith had 24 rebounds as Iceland’s second division regular season wrapped up on Tuesday. The games to determine who ends up in the top division also started and Shawnta Shaw had 34 points in a tough loss.

The quarterfinals finished up this week in Turkey’s second division with teams looking for sweeps on Tuesday. Bodrum had a comeback for their second win and Edremit joined them after an overtime win that had them getting 27 rebounds from Zakyia Weathersby, withstanding 37 points from Kamaria McDaniel. Aliyah Mazyck had 38 points to send her team through, but there was one deciding game after Botas’s reserve team could not get the sweep, but recovered and won on Friday.

Notable Individual Performances

Jovana Jovovic had a 31 point game in Serbia, but the big story was Red Star edging their rivals Partizan by a point. Paige Cannon had a 30 point game in Malta. In Moldova, Iulia Slavioglo had 21 rebounds, Rusu Vladislava had 33 points, and Irina Nebesnaia had 22 rebounds. The playoffs are set in Iceland after the split phase finished on Wednesday and Korinne Campbell had 31 points and Brooklyn Pannell had 32 points. Those playoff games started on Monday and included 37 points from Danielle Rodriguez and 31 points from Sarah Mortensen to get their team a win and Selena Lott delivering a 26 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double to get a win on the other side of the bracket. Kristen Spolyar had a 23 point, 12 rebound, 11 assist triple-double to finish the regular season in Greece and then Morgan Jones started the playoffs with a 30 point game. Caterrion Thompson had a 32 point game in the British league. Tihana Stojsavljevic had a 38 point game in Croatia.