Americas
There were two games in Brazil on Tuesday before a break for the cup and both contests were excellent. It took overtime for Sampaio to get past Corinthians and then Ituano defeated Blumenau. The cup semifinals were played on Friday and both games went as expected with Sampaio and Araraquara advancing. The two losing teams played in the first game on Saturday and Ituano defeated Santo Andre. That set up the championship game and rematch of last year’s finals and it was a great game that saw Sampaio take the lead heading into the final quarter only to see Araraquara find their offensive rhythm and win. League play resumed on Monday with Ituano’s win over Catanduva.
Two of the series in Mexico were on a Thursday-Friday schedule this week. The start of the season did not get any easier for San Luis Potosi, which lost both games to Tamaulipas. Xalapa also completed a sweep after a pair of solid wins over Veracruz. Irapuato won both games of their Friday-Saturday series with Leon. The last series was Saturday-Sunday and Monterrey defeated Aguascalientes twice.
Australia
The Keilor Thunder now sit alone in the lead in the loss column in South conference of NBL1 after Isabelle Bourne had 39 points in their latest win. The Mt. Gambier Pioneers knocked the Knox Raiders out of that tie on Saturday only to drop out themselves after losing on Sunday despite 30 points from Zitina Aokuso because Alice Kunek had 36 points for the Casey Cavaliers. Chloe Bibby had 37 points to lead the Ballarat Miners to a win after Sam Simons had 36 points for the Melbourne Tigers. Lore Devos had a 31 point game for the Launceston Tornadoes while Stephanie Reid reached the 32 point mark for the Frankston Blues.
The big game in the North conference was certainly the battle of the two remaining undefeated teams and the Rockhampton Cyclones had the lead in the first half at home, but AJ Johnson had 30 points for the victorious Northside Wizards after Erin Bollmann had a 21 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist triple-double in their previous game. Mikaela Ruef grabbed another 24 rebounds for the North Gold Coast Seahawks in a game that saw Leah Scott score 31 points for the opposition. It was a tough weekend for the South West Metro Pirates who got 36 points from Taya Hanson in their loss the day before.
The Central conference was off for the weekend, but the Rockingham Flames are still controlling the West conference, getting a 31 point game from Georgia Pineau in their first game and then bringing back a key player for their second game.
There continue to be two undefeated in the East conference as the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are still flying under the radar. The Albury Wodonga Bandits are not in hiding as Lauren Jackson poured in 50 points and added 19 rebounds in 30 minutes in their first win that also featured Mikayla Pivec dishing out 19 assists. Their captain did not play the next day, but the final major addition to their roster, Unique Thompson, had a 30 point, 22 rebound, 11 steal triple-double to school the youngsters of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence. One young player who stood out was Isla Juffermans, who had a 34 point game in a Newcastle Falcon win before heading to Louisville while Leilani Mitchell had 30 points in the loss.
The second to last full round of games in North West Tasmania was on Tuesday. The Latrobe Demons stayed at the top of the standings with a win over the Ulverstone Hoppers behind 36 points from Sarah O’Neill. The Devonport Warriors kept pace with a win over the Wynyard Wildcats. The Penguin Blues stayed in third with a win over the Burnie Tigers and a battle of teams in the bottom half saw the Somerset Heat roll past the Smithton Saints.
The highest scoring game in the top division of Big V came from Haille Nickerson, who had 32 points for Pakenham while Amanda Paschal had another 31 points for Wyndham. In the lower division, Emmie O’Niall had a 31 point, 22 rebound game and her Warrandyte teammate Shannon Powell-Ross had a 27 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist triple-double. Maddi Geislinger had another big rebounding game with 20 boards for Collingwood.
Kazakhstan
The finals concluded in the top division this week. The bronze medal series wrapped up first with Astana finishing their sweep of Tomiris. The other game on Wednesday had Aqtobe using a big fourth quarter to stay in championship contention. Turan shut the door on them on Thursday to win the championship though. The latest second division round-robin also finished with Zhetisu narrowly staying perfect. Their reserve team pulled off a surprise win against Karaganda.
Europe
Only a handful of competitions are still being played across the continent. San Joanense won both games at home to win the Portuguese second division. The teams to drop out of Italy’s second division were determined after Vicenza defeated Carugate and Torino swept Roma. Many details still have to be arranged in Israel’s top two divisions for next season, but Hapoel Kfar Saba did sweep Ironi Ness Ziona for the second division championship. The French second division crown and the spot in the top division came down to one game on Saturday that Chartres won at home over Toulouse.
Selena Lott had 39 points and Emilie Hesseldal had 20 rebounds, but Njardvik lost the opener of the finals in Iceland in double overtime and then lost at home to Keflavik in the second game despite Lott’s 15 point, 12 rebound, 10 assist triple-double. It remains to be seen how they will approach the future after a magical season, but the London Lions did get 31 points from Abbey Meyers in the championship game of the British league to maintain local dominance.
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