World of Basketball April 15th

Asia

The finals were played in Japan over the weekend at a single site. The top seed Red Wave won the first game on Saturday, but the Iris overcame a slow start to avoid elimination on Sunday. That set up a deciding game on Monday that the Red Wave won.

Another phase started in Taiwan with a round robin over the weekend. The big games were on the final day, concluding with Cathay Life edging Taiyuan Textile in the battle of the undefeated teams. The other matchup had teams looking for their first wins in this stage and Chunghwa Telecom managed to grind out a victory over Taiwan Power.

Top seed Inner Mongolia got to host the first two games of the finals in China and looked ready to take the lead on Thursday, but Sichuan controlled the end of the game to win the opener. Inner Mongolia made sure that they would not head on the road with a big deficit, winning Saturday’s game with some help from other antics. Sichuan will host the next two games on Tuesday and Friday.

Australia

The North conference started play to complete the NBL1 lineup with all teams from Queensland except for one team from the Northern Territory. Mikhaela Cann had 31 points for the Logan Thunder in Thursday’s opener, but it was not enough against the North Gold Coast Seahawks, which got 23 rebounds from Mikaela Ruef. Alex Fowler had the highest scoring game with a 38 point effort for the Townsville Flames.

A busy second round in the South conference meant that the string of consecutive days with at least one game ran to twelve. One player who was certainly busy was Stephanie Reid, who played all 50 minutes of a double-overtime game for the Frankston Blues only to see her 46 points not be enough for the win. Zitina Aokuso had a 30 point game for the Mt. Gambier Pioneers. Players continued to warm up for WNBA training camp and Amy Atwell certainly caught fire after following a 33 point game with a near perfect 35 point shooting display.

In the West conference, Alex Ciabattoni had a 31 point game for the Cockburn Cougars. A crowded East conference weekend included a 20 rebound game from Sarah Schicher, a 31 point game from Lizzy Tonks, a 31 point explosion from Piath Gabriel, and a 35 point game from Nicole Munger. Lauren Jackson had a 31 point game while her teammate Mikayla Pivec had a 19 point, 10 rebound, 11 assist triple-double.

Smithton is suddenly on a hot streak in North West Tasmania after Tuesday’s decisive win over Latrobe. Teams will benefit from some of the top players carrying over form from their NBL1 teams as Ellie Collins scored 43 points in Penguin’s win over Ulverstone. Wynyard defeated Somerset. In the top division in Big V, Julia Nielacna had a 20 rebound game. In the lower division, Kylah Collins had a 30 point game and Emmie O’Nial had a 37 point, 20 rebound game.

Americas

The semifinals started this weekend in Mexico and both of the third place teams won their quarterfinals against the second place teams so these matchup are all intra-divisional. In the battle of the two teams from the Northern zone, top seed Libelulas took care of business at home with wins over Quetzales on Friday and Sunday. In the Southern zone, Mieleras won the first game easily on Sunday, but Cinnamon was looking for the upset on Monday before the top seed came back and doubled their lead before hitting the road.

The week in Brazil started with a busy Wednesday that included Mesquita’s win over Ponta Grossa, Sampaio edging Corinthians, and Blumenau winning at Sao Jose. No games were played on Thursday, but Gabriela Guimaraes had 35 points on Friday to lead Ituano in a win over Santo Andre. That game marked the completion of the first round-robin and Sampaio has a game lead over Araraquara and Ituano. Ponta Grossa is the winless team, two games behind Catanduva. The second half of the season started on Monday with Corinthians winning at Catanduva.

Around Europe

The semifinals started in Sweden and Klara Lundquist had a 19 point, 14 rebound, 11 assist triple-double in a win for Sodertalje. Martha Burse had 32 points to keep her team in contention for another game in Luxembourg before they were eliminated while Lauren Van Kleunen had 36 points to send her team through on the other side of the bracket. The quarterfinals started in Iceland and big statlines included 37 points from Danielle Rodriguez and 31 points from Sarah Mortensen to lead their team to a win, Denia Davis-Stewart grabbing 22 rebounds, and Brooklyn Pannell scoring 32 points. The finals are set in Finland after an excellent game that saw Doniyah Cliney’s 34 points not be enough with IImar’I Thomas scoring 36 points to advance. Zaklina Jankovic had a 21 rebound game to mark the end of the regular season in Serbia. Lotte Toornstra had a 31 point game in the Netherlands. Olena Boiko had a 32 point game in Croatia.

JuJu Redmond had 31 points, but could not get her team into the final in Romania while Sepsi was absolutely stunned on the other side of the bracket. The final set of series started this weekend and Elisabeth Pavel had 32 points and Kincso Kelemen had 31 points for their team in the consolation bracket. Elitzur Ramla completed a sweep of the finals in Israel, getting 33 points from Eden Rotberg on Thursday to edge past upstarts Hapoel Jerusalem, which got 30 points from Shir Tirosh, and then Jennie Simms had a 12 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist triple-double in the clinching game on Monday. The great rivals are meeting in the finals in Greece with Olympiacos drawing first blood on Sunday while in the consolation matchups, Lauren Manis had a 34 point game.

Chase for Promotion

The championship was decided in Ukraine’s second division on Sunday after semifinals on Saturday with Anastasia Shepeliuk scoring 32 points to help Frankivsk’s reserve team get a trophy to match their main team. The semifinals were completed in Turkey’s second division with games on Tuesday and Thursday and deciding games on Sunday. Botas’s reserve team will not interfere with the process after getting swept by Bodrum, which will face Bursa Ant after their sweep of Edremit that included a 38 point game from Aliyah Mazyck and a 22 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist triple-double. Kristina Grige grabbed 24 rebounds to help her team advance in the playoffs in Lithuania’s second division.

Ardoi won the second division in Spain and now the eight teams behind them will battle in the playoffs for the other spot in the top division. The third division also finished their regular season and Barakaldo finished their group with a perfect record. Alexandria won the Romanian second division after finishing off a sweep of Agronomia Bucuresti on Thursday. Only the playoff phase is left in Portugal’s second division with teams looking to join Sanjoanense in the top division and La’Quanza Glover finished her campaign with a 26 rebound game. Alex Obouh Fegue had a 20 rebound game in Italy’s second division. The semifinals continued to determine which teams would play in which division in Iceland next season and Shawnta Shaw had 30 point game in a win.