Asia
The quarterfinals were played in Kazakhstan over the course of the week starting last Monday. Sweeps were possible in all series after Tuesday’s games, which included a 32 point game from Elizaveta Mitina and a 39 point game from Inga Manucharyan to help their teams pick up wins. Aktobe was the first team to advance since their third game with Barsy Atyrau was scheduled on Wednesday. Tomiris avoided a sweep in Thursday’s first game, but Turan and Astana Tigers got the wins that they needed to progress past Caspiy and Ertis. That left one game on Friday and Ogjetpes did get the win they needed to finish off Tomiris.
The second of the current stage in Taiwan was played over the weekend. The big clash was the final game on Sunday again and Cathay Life defeated Taiyuan Textile to sweep the stage. At the other end of the standings, Taiwan Power managed to surprise Chunghwa Telecom to not only pick up their first win, but also to move ahead in the tiebreaker between the teams for the whole stage.
Inner Mongolia figured to have some advantage in taking the lead in the finals in China on Tuesday with Sichuan not having their foreign player, but it ended up being a struggle that required a big comeback and overtime. Sichuan had their full lineup on Friday and took a big lead early to force a deciding game. Inner Mongolia hosted on Monday, but Liz Cambage ended up being the difference and Sichuan won the title again even with the change in roster rules.
Australia
Geelong got their first win in NBL1’s South conference this week as Lasha Petree poured in 42 points to make sure that they would prevail over the Frankston Blues. The Bendigo Braves figure to be one of the stronger teams again even with their final roster not settled yet and Megan McKay had 33 points in their win over the Nunawading Spectres.
The top two scoring outbursts in the North conference this week came from Miela Goodchild of the North Gold Coast Seahawks who followed up a 34 point game in their loss to the Townsville Flames with a 40 point game in a win over the Cairns Dolphins. Taylor Mole was the other player to hit the 30 point mark, doing so in a Mackay Meteorettes win over the Brisbane Capitals.
Two winless teams met in the West conference with Anne Zipser grabbing 20 rebounds to get the Goldfields Giants their first win over the South West Slammers. The East Perth Eagles were also looking for their first win and Laci Hawthorne had 20 rebounds, but Grace Stone had 30 points to make sure that the Perry Lakes Hawks prevailed. They also go the victory the day before with Ash Isenbarger leading them with 37 points against the Perth Redbacks.
The Albury Wodonga Bandits are looking strong again in the East conference as Mikayla Pivec helped them school the youngsters of the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence with a 19 point, 10 rebound, 10 assists triple-double and then Lauren Jackson poured in 36 points the next day. Violet Morrow had a 34 point game and Vanessa Panousis had a 32 point effort.
In the Central conference, a full round of games was played on Saturday. The North Adelaide Rockets are the only undefeated team now after the Central Districts Lions lost to the Sturt Sabres. The Norwood Flames finally picked up their first win of the season, rolling past the Eastern Mavericks and leaving the Woodville Warriors as the last winless team.
Smithton is suddenly on a hot streak in North West Tasmania, pulling out of last place after their third straight win, this time over first place Devonport. That meant that Ulverstone’s loss to Somerset left them at the bottom. Latrobe is in second place in the loss column after a win over Penguin. Wynyard defeated Burnie after a ragged second half.
The big scoring games in the top division of Big V came in the same game on Sunday with Amanda Paschal providing 39 points for a Wyndham win while Emily Maltezos had 32 points for McKinnon. Tegan Hindle had 30 points for Hume City in Wyndham’s prior win. In the lower division, Jenna Mastellone had a 30 point game, Jade Odom had a 15 point, 13 rebound, 11 assist triple-double, Tyla Paraha had a 30 point game, and Kylah Collins had a 32 point game.
Americas
The finals are set in Mexico after each series concluded this week. Libelulas won at Quetzales on Wednesday to complete their sweep. Mieleras won on Friday against Cinnamon to advance and set up a matchup of the top teams in each zone from the regular season. The teams did not meet in inter-zone series so an added level of intrigue will be involved when they start the finals.
There was a doubleheader in Brazil on Tuesday and Sampaio won at Sao Jose and then Ituano won at Campinas. On Wednesday, Ponta Grossa remained winless after losing to Araraquara. Sampaio won Thursday’s game at Santo Andre. Ituano defeated Corinthians in the first game on Friday and then Araraquara breezed past Blumenau. Ponta Grossa had their best chance of a win on Saturday with a home game against Catanduva, the team above them, and seized the opportunity in the second half to finally prevail once. There were two early games on Sunday with Joice Rodrigues dishing out 15 assists and Gabriela Guimares scoring 30 points in Ituano’s win over Sao Jose and Sampaio winning at Mesquita. Monday’s game was an easy win for Blumenau over Catanduva.
Around Europe
JuJu Redmond had 30 points on Thursday to help Targoviste force a deciding game in Romania’s bronze medal series, but Sepsi won on Monday to avoid being massively upset. There were big statlines in the playoffs in Moldova as Maria Tambalari grabbed 26 rebounds to help withstand a 35 point game from Victoria Birna and Anastasia Fedun had 30 points while her teammate Irina Nebesnaia grabbed 20 boards. In Malta, Tayler Bennett had 39 points to outduel Paige Cannon, who had 31 points. The quarterfinals raged on in Iceland and Denia Davis-Stewart had a 20 rebound effort while Korinne Campbell had a 42 point game. Janika Griffith-Wallace poured in 50 points in the British league to seal a win for her team. An overtime game had Kat Tudor score 31 points in the win while Allison Day had 33 points in the loss. Shelby Cheslek had 34 points in the bronze medal game in Finland, but Forssan Alku still lost to Kouvottaret. Audentes defeated their own reserve team to win the championship in Estonia. Mechelen swept the finals in Belgium against Braine. There might be no bigger shock this season than what happened in the Czech Republic on Monday in Game 2 of the Finals when USK Praha lost to a domestic opponent for the first time in just shy of 11 years, falling to Brno by 2 points after losing to them by a point on April 30, 2013.
Chase for Promotion
The first two games were played in Turkey’s second division’s final series and Aliyah Collier had 37 points on Thursday, but Bodrum still lost at home. They did win on Saturday to even the series, but Bursa Ant will get the chance to win the series at home. Teams continued to battle to stay in or climb up to the first division in Luxembourg and Caitlyn Jones had 37 points to lead her team to a win. The regular season finished over the weekend in Italy’s second division with each half getting a day to themselves and Amaiquen Siciliano had a 33 point game. The brackets are set for the two promotion playoffs and for teams to stay in the division with the format this year meaning that teams from the same regular season group can take up both spots.
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