World of Basketball July 14th

Americas

The first game of the finals in Brazil was on Wednesday and the rematch lived up to expectations with overtime needed before Sampaio could start with a win over Araraquara. The next game on Friday was also close, but Sampaio won again to move the top seed to a game away from the championship.

The Game 3 of each quarterfinal series in Mexico was played on Monday with one series tied and the others featuring a home team trying to extend their season and a visiting team trying to complete a sweep. Monterrey completed the sweep over Aguascalientes and Xalapa also advance, even though it took overtime to prevail in Veracruz. Irapuato avoided elimination by the top seed Chihuahua courtesy of 33 points from Sidney Cooks. The reigning champions bounced back on Tuesday though to advance. San Luis Potosi took the lead in the tied series and then finished the job against Tamaulipas the next day with another strong second half to continue a dream debut season.

The week started in Puerto Rico with Marieliz Martinez delivering a 29 point, 10 rebound, 10 steal triple-double for Arecibo in a win. On Wednesday, Aniris Quintana had 21 rebounds in Isabela’s loss. Stephani Ramos had a 25 rebound game for Trujillo Alto in a win on Thursday. The big story on Friday was Jullie Ruiz’s 34 point, 10 rebound, 14 assist, 11 steal quadruple-double in Yauco’s easy win. Brandy Tweed had 23 rebounds to help Vega Baja seal a narrow win. On Sunday Valeria Verdejo had 31 points for Catano in a win and Jimena Cruz had 30 points for Isabela in a win.

Australia

The end of the regular season was this week in NBL1’s South conference and the top seed came down to one game on Saturday with the Knox Raiders overcoming 32 points from Isabelle Bourne to get past the Keilor Thunder. The week started in entertaining fashion with Stephanie Reid scoring 48 points in a Frankston Blues win and then they won again with a 21 rebound game from Lou Brown. Geelong saw their playoff hopes evaporate after more tough losses, getting 36 from Lasha Petree, but falling to the Waverley Falcons, which got 34 points each from Carley Ernst and Bec Cole.

The Northside Wizards finished the North conference schedule with only one blemish, getting 16 assist from Erin Bollmann and ultimately leaving the Brisbane Capitals out of the playoffs. Two teams that were finishing well down the standings put on a show and Mia Loyd had 30 points for the Cairns Dolphins, but Kahlaijah Dean had 32 points even though she missed out on a triple-double and the Ipswich Force won. The North Coast Seahawks will rely on their star duo in the postseason and got 36 points from Miela Goodchild and a 14 point, 15 rebound, 10 assist triple-double from Mikaela Ruef in a win over the Gold Coast Rollers, which got 33 points from Kate Deeble.

The West is the only conference that still has a week in its regular season, although the Perth Redbacks did finish their schedule. The big statlines both came in the same game as the Cockburn Cougars warmed up for the postseason by crushing the eliminated Eastern Suns, getting 31 points from Daniel Raber and a 13 point, 12 rebound, 12 assist triple-double from Alex Ciabattoni.

The Albury Wodonga Bandits finished the East conference regular season with a perfect record punctuated by Unique Thompson’s 35 point effort. The Norths Bears finished behind them, but the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles won there in overtime to send a message for a possible playoff matchup. Jasmine Forcadilla had a 32 point game for the Central Coast Crusaders and then the Hornsby KuRingGai Spiders also lost the next day by giving up a 24 point, 17 rebound, 10 assist triple-double to Callie Bourne, letting the Canberra Nationals jump up in the standings. The last game saw Lauren Nicholson pour in 35 points for the Sutherland Sharks.

It was the final week of the regular season in the Central conference and the Sturt Sabres and Central Districts Lions both won close games to finish tied at the top of the standings. The North Adelaide Rockets lost to complete a slide at the end of the season that pushed them down to fifth place.

The notable statlines in Big V came from the Sherbrooke Suns, which won twice thanks in part to Alicia Carline grabbing 23 boards in the first game and then recording a 34 point, 32 rebound game the next day. Miranda Gartner scored 33 points in their first contest. Megan Ormiston had a 31 point game in a Hume City Broncos win. In the lower division, Emmie O’Nial had a 31 point game for the Warrandyte Venom, Maddi Geislinger had a 25 rebound game for Collingwood, and Cindy Tagliabue had a 21 rebound game for the Southern Peninsula Sharks.

EuroCup

After the EuroLeague field was announced last week, it was time for EuroCup’s turn in the spotlight on Tuesday. While three teams are slated to drop down from EuroLeague qualifying, forty teams were announced as earning spots in the regular season directly. Since more teams applied than there were available slots, ten teams will have to navigate qualifying series to secure the remaining five slots. The format will remain the same with the regular season featuring groups of four before the knockout stages.

While there are plenty of big name clubs involved, the first storyline has to be the new countries sending clubs to the competition. The runners up from Finland, Peli-Karhut, should be competitive while Cypriot champions AEL will welcome teams to Limassol and the true surprise may be the Armenian champions Yerevan Foxes as the league there is not as organized as the other nations sending teams. Another major storyline is defending champions London Lions having their entire future in doubt with budget cuts meaning that they will not be given the chance at repeating, leaving Caledonia Gladiators as the lone representative from Great Britain.

There are plenty of traditional powerhouses from the strong leagues, but Galatasaray is disappointingly the only team from Turkey, the top league in the competition rankings, that directly qualified with a ton of teams turning down bids. There is no such worry with France, which mandates participation for teams that have earned spots, so they are already represented by Lattes Montpellier, Charnay, Lyon, and Tarbes. Spain also has four directly qualified teams in Girona, Jairis, Estudiantes, and Ibaeta. Poland is the final country that already has four teams, bringing in Gorzow, Arka Gdynia, Zaglebie Sosnowiec, and Lublin.

Belgium is the lone country with three spots secured already between Mechelen, Braine, and Namur. European powerhouse Sopron is very much welcomed back at this level after some financial struggles and they are joined by PEAC from Hungary. Italy is hurt by losing two strong teams from their top league, but will definitely have Magnolia Campobasso and Sesto San Giovanni trying to advance. The Czech Republic has a pair of teams already in returnees KP Brno and Chomutov. Even countries further down the rankings already have two entrants, including Greece, which has Panathinaikos and Proteas Voulas. Benfica and Uniao Sportiva return to represent Portugal. German powerhouse Keltern is joined by the team from Berlin that unseated them in the finals and is looking to establish themselves on the women’s side alongside their men’s team. Serial participants Kibirkstis from Lithuania will be joined by Neptunas.

There are plenty of countries that are starting with one team, like Latvia, represented by powerhouse Riga, and Romania, where Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe broke through on the continental level last year, but found themselves knocked off their perch domestically. Israeli champions Elitzur Ramla return after withdrawing last year, but news has been thin on the location of home games for teams in Israel in FIBA competitions. Slovakian champions Piestanske Cajky, Swiss champions Fribourg, and Serbian runners up Crvena zvezda return.

The ten teams in qualifiers were split into two pots for seeding with the seeded teams getting to host the second and final game of each series and who advances will make big difference in which countries have the most representatives in the regular season. On the seeded side, Ferrol of Spain, Dinamo Sassari of Italy, Universitatea Cluj-Napoca of Romania, and Angers of France are joined by a surprise entrant, Bodrum, which earned promotion from Turkey’s second division and will be trying to make the step up even more challenging. Germany’s Osnabruck, Iraklis and PAS Giannina from Greece, Battipaglia from Italy, and MTK from Hungary will try to qualify as unseeded teams.