Americas
It was a busy day in Brazil on Tuesday with three games. Corinthians won at Sao Jose and Santo Andre defeated Campinas while the only uncompetitive game was an easy win for Sampaio over Blumenau. Thayna Silva had 34 points on Wednesday to lead Mesquita to a win over Ponta Grossa. Action resumed on Friday with Melisa Gretter dishing out 15 assists in Blumenau’s win over Mesquita and Santo Andre defeating Sao Jose. Both games on Saturday were excellent with Joice Rodrigues recording 15 assists to help Ituano withstand a 39 point game from Manuela Rios and defeat Ponta Grossa to start action. The other game was a presumed finals matchup that saw Sampaio rally dramatically late to leave Araraquara with a win.
Three series were played on a Thursday-Friday schedule in Mexico this week and San Luis Potosi withstood a 33 point game from Sidney Cooks to win their first game, but Irapuato bounced back for the split. Monterrey swept their series in Leon and Chihuahua swept Tamaulipas, getting a 10 point, 12 rebound, 13 assist triple-double from Kyra Lambert in the first game. The last series was a Friday-Saturday affair that had two excellent games with Xalapa winning the first and Aguascalientes winning the second.
Australia
It was a busy week in the South conference in NBL1 even though the statlines were not popping as much as other weekends. Amy Atwell delivered what she could for the Bendigo Braves with 34 and 33 point games. The Keilor Thunder continue to sit in the lead, getting a 31 point performance from Isabelle Bourne.
The Northside Wizards remained undefeated in the North conference, but there is plenty of jockeying behind them. The North Gold Coast Seahawks are right behind them in wins on the board, prevailing again behind Mikaela Ruef’s 36 points and 26 rebounds and Miela Goodchild’s 31 points. A battle of one loss teams had Courtney Woods scoring 30 points to make sure that the Darwin Salties won despite 31 points from Lara McSpadden for the Rockhampton Cyclones. The Brisbane Capitals picked up a win with 31 points from Lil Dart and 20 rebounds from Hannah Hank. The Ipswich Force left the Cairns Dolphins as the lone winless team after a wild comeback led to an overtime victory with 37 points from Kahlaijah Dean to offset 40 points from Leah Scott and 31 points from Taya Hanson for the South West Metro Pirates.
In the West conference, Rockingham was almost handed their first loss after the Willetton Tigers forced overtime, but prevailed in the extra period. The two teams at the bottom of the standings met and there was no first win for the South West Slammers, keeping the Eastern Suns safely above them. The East Perth Eagles also won to stay clear of last place. Daniel Raber had 32 points for the Cockburn Cougars.
The Norths Bears shook up the top of the standings in the East conference behind the Albury Wodonga Bandits, handing the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles their first loss on Saturday and then defeating Newcastle on Sunday to drop them to fourth place. Nicole Munger had 31 points in that Falcons loss after scoring 35 points the previous day in a win. Jessie-May Hall may have to wait until later this summer for global recognition, but did have a 33 point, 11 steal performance in a Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders win. Ella Dent had a 33 point game for the Illawarra Hawks win, Shyla Heal had a 30 point game in her return to the Sydney Comets, and Tahlia Tupaea had another 30 points for the Penrith Panthers.
After a one week break, the Central conference returned to play to start the second half of the season and the last earlier round game was played so all teams are now even on games played. The Central Districts Lions and North Adelaide Rockets are still tied at the top of the standings while the Woodville Warriors are winless. Regan Schenck had an 11 point, 14 rebound, 12 assist triple-double for the Southern Tigers.
The last round of the regular season in North West Tasmania was on Tuesday. Tayla Roberts had 30 points to help the Latrobe Demons finish at the top of the standings with a win over Somerset Heat. The Devonport Warriors could not keep pace, losing to the Penguin Blues. The other team in the playoffs is the Wynyard Wildcats, which defeated the Ulverstone Redhoppers. Both teams had their finale in the other game, a Burnie Tigers win over the last place Smithton Saints.
In the top division in Big V, Chloe Hildebrand led Sunbury with 30 points in a decisive win. There were plenty of big statlines in the lower division as Maddi Geislinger had 28 rebounds in Collingwood’s overtime loss and Ava Zadow had a 20 rebound effort for Mildura. Kylah Collins had the highest scoring game with 32 points for Warrandyte while Kelly Foster turned in a 31 points game for Chelsea and Jenna Mastellone hit the 30 point mark for Western Port.
Europe
There are still a handful of competitions being contested around the continent. Panathlitikos grabbed one of the spots in Greece’s top division next season after winning their second division playoff series. Keflavik finished their sweep of Njardvik in the finals in Iceland on Wednesday. Luxol lost the first two games of the finals in Malta, but won three in a row facing elimination to win the championship over Depiro. Kam finished a sweep of Vardar in the finals on Wednesday in North Macedonia.
The six spots available in Spain’s third division were determined over the weekend in Huelva and Granada. Each site hosted two four team groups that played a round-robin starting on Thursday. After each round-robin concluded on Saturday, the top team earned promotion and then the runners up at each site faced off on Sunday for the last two spots. The first group in Huelva was pretty straightforward with TerrAlfas winning in overtime on Saturday to seal their promotion. The winner of the other group was L’Hospitalet, which lost its first game, but got the key overtime win over Adareva to secure the tiebreaker. Adareva did get the last spot on Sunday, breaking the hearts of San Isidro with Marina Roters-Dubinina grabbing 20 rebounds. Mostoles won all their games in the first group in Granada while Mondragon University’s wins in the first two games helped them win the tiebreaker in the other group. CFI Reina Isabel won Saturday’s last game to take the other spot in the final opposite Tenerife Central, which had prevailed in the three team tiebreaker in their group, and the home team won to earn promotion.
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