Americas
The finals continued in Brazil on Wednesday and Araraquara needed a win to extend the series and they took a big lead early to defeat Sampaio. It was tougher on Friday, but Araraquara did what they needed to in the second half and forced a deciding game on Tuesday.
The semifinals started on Monday in Mexico and San Luis Potosi was looking for another upset early before Chihuahua pulled away at home. Monterrey fended off Xalapa to start the other series. The home teams both won again on Tuesday, leaving the two lower seeds needing wins at home to extend their seasons. Both series continued on Friday after the teams traveled between venues and Chihuahua had an easy time sweeping San Luis Potosi, but it took a big fourth quarter for Monterrey to join them in the finals with a win at Xalapa.
The final full week in Puerto Rico started on Monday with Kineysha Mercado scoring 33 points, but Guaynabo came up short. Wilmarie Ortiz dished out 16 assists in an easy Adjuntas win on Saturday.
Australia
The NBL1 playoffs started this weekend, including a full Saturday in the South conference. The top four teams played for byes while the next four teams were in their own elimination bracket. The sixth place Sandringham Sabres were eliminated first after falling to the seventh place Waverley Falcons. The fifth place Ballarat Miners sent the eight place Eltham Wildcats packing. In the upper group, the top seed Knox Raiders lost to the fourth place Mt. Gambier Pioneers, which got the first bye. The second place Keilor Thunder did take care of business at home though against the Dandenong Rangers.
The North conference has a six team bracket format with the top two teams getting a bye. The first quarterfinal was on Friday and the third place Townsville Fire got a 20 rebound game from Ella Tofaeono to defeat the South West Metro Pirates and set up a game against the Rockhampton Cyclones. On Saturday, the fifth place North Gold Coast Seahawks got 30 points from Miela Goodchild and 27 rebounds from Mikaela Ruef to get the road win over the Southern Districts Spartans and the reward of a game against the top seed Northside Wizards.
The East conference’s playoff format includes eight teams, but split into two halves with the bottom half playing elimination games on Saturday and the top half playing for a bye to the next round. The fifth place Sutherland Sharks eliminated the eighth place Canberra Nationals with 21 rebounds from Olivia White. Shyla Heal’s 36 points were not enough for the seventh place Sydney Comets and the sixth place Central Coast Crusaders won after getting a 15 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double from Mikaela Dombkins. The top bracket had a surprise early with the Albury Wodonga Bandits losing their first game of the season despite 38 points from Unique Thompson, setting up a game with Sutherland while the Newcastle Falcons got the bye. The Norths Bears get the other bye after 31 points from Maddie O’Hehir just got them past the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.
The Central conference used an old traditional format for the playoffs with the top seed Sturt Sabres getting a bye to next week and the first round played on Saturday. The fifth place North Adelaide Rockets won at the fourth place South Adelaide Panthers to extend their season. The other game was also a good one with the second place Central Districts Lions getting the overtime win to set up a game against Sturt, leaving the Forestville Eagles playing in the elimination game next.
The regular season was completed in the West conference and there were ultimately no upsets that would change the seeding for the playoffs. The Cockburn Cougars got 36 points from Alex Ciabattoni and a 21 point, 15 rebound, 10 assist triple-double from Daniel Raber in their win. Their next opponent is the Warwick Senators as Chloe Forster had 31 points, but just missed out on her own triple-double in their closing win.
It was a busy week in Big V’s top division and Wyndham was nearly surprised by Sunbury, but Amanda Paschal had a 28 point, 13 rebound, 12 assist triple-double to continue their run. Alicia Carline had a 20 rebound game for Sherbrooke. In the lower divisions, Jenna Mastellone had a 35 point game for Western Port and Alysha Carden-David had a 20 rebound game for Altona.
EuroLeague
The draw for both qualifying and the regular season was conducted on Thursday and there was plenty of intrigue about which seeded team would draw Besiktas in qualifying. The answer was Landes and they will be hoping that their advantage holds with the Turkish club missing their WNBA players during those games. The other two seeded teams should feel favored ahead of their matchups.
Qualifiers (team listed first hosts second game):
Szekszard (Hungary) vs. Brno (Czech Republic)
Zaragoza (Spain) vs. Constanta (Romania)
Landes (France) vs. Besiktas (Turkey)
Only one group is complete right now and that is Group D with all four teams also likely to feel that getting bounced out in last place would be a major disappointment. That will also be the case in Group A regardless of which qualifying team completes the lineup. Cukurova and Bourges should have a straightforward path to advancing from Group B, but Olympiacos and the qualifier certainly could spring upsets while battling each other. Both teams in the final last year were drawn into Group C and this will also be a tough group if Zaragoza qualifies as expected.
Groups:
A: Avenida (Spain), Schio (Italy), DVTK (Hungary), winner Landes-Besiktas
B: Cukurova (Turkey), Bourges (France), Olympiacos (Greece), winner Szekszard-Brno
C: Fenerbahce (Turkey), Villeneuve-d’Ascq (France), Polkowice (Poland), winner Zaragoza-Constanta
D: USK Praha (Czech Republic), Valencia (Spain), Reyer Venezia (Italy), Gyor (Hungary)
EuroCup
The qualifying and regular season draws for this competition were also made on Thursday with plenty of spots in the regular season to fill from qualifying winners and the losers from EuroLeague qualifying. The top two teams in each group will advance while the third place teams will hope that easy draws give them big advantages in the tiebreaker.
Qualifiers (team listed first hosts second game):
Dinamo Sassari (Italy) vs. PAS Giannina (Greece)
Bodrum (Turkey) vs. Osnabruck (Germany)
Ferrol (Spain) vs. Battipaglia (Italy)
Universitatea Cluj vs. Iraklis (Greece)
Angers (France) vs. MTK (Hungary)
Groups:
A: Lyon (France), Gorzow (Poland), Chomutov (Czech Republic), AEL Limassol (Cyprus)
B: Lublin (Poland), Panathinaikos (Greece), Jairis (Spain), winner Angers-MTK
C: Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe (Romania), Crvena zvezda (Serbia), Ibaeta (Spain), Proteas Voulas (Greece)
D: Lattes Montpellier (France), Fribourg (Switzerland), Caledonia Gladiators (Great Britain), Neptunas (Lithuania)
E: Sopron (Hungary), Piestanske Cajky (Slovakia), Charnay (France), winner Bodrum-Osnabruck
F: loser Zaragoza-Constanta, Braine (Belgium), Keltern (Germany), Peli-Karhut (Finland)
G: loser Szekszard-Brno, Estudiantes (Spain), Tarbes (France), winner Universitatea Cluj-Iraklis
H: Gdynia (Poland), Elitzur Ramla (Israel), Kibirkstis (Lithuania), Berlin (Germany)
I: Riga (Latvia), Mechelen (Belgium), Zaglebie Sosnowiec (Poland), winner Dinamo Sassari-PAS Giannina
J: Galatasaray (Turkey), KP Brno (Czech Republic), Uniao Sportiva (Portugal), winner Ferrol-Battipaglia
K: loser Landes-Besiktas, Namur (Belgium), Benfica (Portugal), Sesto San Giovanni (Italy)
L: Girona (Spain), PEAC (Hungary), Magnolia Campobasso (Italy), Yerevan Foxes (Armenia)
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