World of Basketball August 4th

Americas

The finals continued in Mexico with Monterrey in a hole, but having the chance to flip the series with games at home. They took care of business on Tuesday and then evened the series by holding on for a narrow win on Wednesday. Monterrey finished winning their home games on Friday, sending the series back to Chihuahua with two chances to win the championship.

The other two series in Puerto Rico’s Elite 8 started on Monday and it was a good day for the teams from the West half as Guayama defeated Bayamon. The other game was excellent with Jullie Ruiz scoring 37 points to lead Yauco past Toa Alta, which got 30 points from Paola Maldonado. The other two series had Game 2s on Tuesday and the results were the same with Catano defeating Guaynabo and Ponce defeating Carolina. Toa Alta bounced back with a win over Yauco on Wednesday, but Bayamon lost to Guayama again. That left one deciding game on Friday and Yauco advanced past Toa Alta.

Australia

The conference champions are close to being decided in NBL1 ahead of the national playoffs and the semifinals were played in the South conference on Saturday. The remaining team with the best regular season, the Keilor Thunder, advanced first after their win over the Ballarat Miners. The Waverley Falcons, which had to make a big run just to get to this stage, continued their streak, getting 20 rebounds from Carley Ernst in a win over the Mt. Gambier Pioneers.

Two rounds of playoffs were played in the West conference to set the championship matchup. On Wednesday, the Perry Lakes Hawks advanced to the semifinals with a win over the Willetton Tigers. Caitlyn Jones had 30 points to lead the Lakeside Lightning to a win over the Warwick Senators, which got 22 rebounds from Karly Murphy. The semifinals were on Saturday and the Hawks fell to the Cockburn Cougars. The other game took overtime, but the top seed Rockingham Flames got past the Lightning, which got 22 rebounds from Teige Morrell.

The North conference uses a series format for their final with the top seed Northside Wizards getting to host all three games if there was no sweep. The second seeded Rockhampton Cyclones looked ready to win the opener on Friday, but the hosts fought back in the final quarter to take the lead. On Saturday, Morgan Yaeger had 32 points and they held on to their lead this time to even the series. That left one game on Sunday to decide the championship and Rockhampton pulled away in the second half to move on to the national tournament.

The semifinals were played in the East conference on Saturday and Norths, which had the best regular season of the remaining teams, got 30 points from Carla Pitman, but Sutherland, which had already knocked off the top seed, took a big lead in the first half to win again. The Newcastle Eagles got to host the other game due to their opening round win and started well to knock out the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, which actually held the tiebreaker in the standings.

The team facing the Central Districts Lions in the Central conference final was determined on Saturday. The Sturt Sabres were trying to get there after tying for the lead in the regular season, but the Forestville Eagles dominated the second half to get the road win.

It was the last weekend of the regular season in Big V and Pakenham got 30 points from Haille Nickerson to send a message to Wyndham that it would not be a smooth path to the championship. Megan Ormiston had 31 points for Hume City in another loss. Shannon Powell-Ross had a 31 point game for Warrandyte, the top team in the middle division. Maddi Geislinger had a 35 point game for Collingwood.