Puerto Rico
Another full round of games started with two matchups on Monday as Manati pulled away from San German for a win and then Asia Taylor was brilliant for Moca, scoring 40 points to help complete their comeback over Morovis. On Tuesday, Santurce finished strong in a win over Isabela. On Wednesday, Carolina won at Morovis and then Adrienne GodBold’s 38 points were still not enough for Hatillo in a loss to Lares. Manati put on an offensive clinic in a win over San German on Thursday, getting 31 points from Dre’Una Edwards. Isabela defeated Lares first on Friday and then Carolina fended off Moca. On Saturday, Santurce won at Manati and Morovis rallied in the second half to defeat Hatillo. Morovis carried that momentum to Sunday, defeating Isabela this time.
El Salvador
The playoffs started in El Salvador this week with the top two teams getting a bye to the semifinals and the next four teams facing off to join them. Each series started on Wednesday and then continued on Saturday. Eilen Gilbert had 25 rebounds to help Salvadorenas win the opener against Santa Tecla and then they finished the sweep on the road. Batanecas won their home opener and then got 41 points from Maria Montero to rally for a sweep, eliminating a Monsenor Romero side that 33 got points from Eugenia Fraguela.
Next Season
While we provide year-round coverage of basketball around the world and there is always some league out there that is still in the middle of the season, this weekend marks a good time to consider this as the last week of the 23-24 season and next week as the start of the 24-25 season. We are committed to another season of coverage of women’s basketball from all over the planet, including these weekly columns that offer tidbits from a variety of competitions.
The most noteworthy leagues are starting soon and we will continue to provide more detailed coverage of each game of play. Like last season, those leagues will be the ones in Australia, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Turkey. If China’s league has statistics that are accessible without additional technological measures, then that league will also be covered. As in the past, we will keep an updated page that will show players on the rosters of those teams that will be familiar to the portion of our audience from North America.
There continues to be exciting news for global women’s basketball getting announced all the time. EuroLeague and EuroCup are long established competitions featuring their best teams from Europe and the club championship in Africa also has a long history and we look forward to covering both again this season. Last year, the Americas crowned their first club champion and that tournament will start again this year very soon. With leagues in the United States generally not bothering with actual sanctioning or participating in the global ecosystem, it is thrilling to know that the Bay Area Phoenix of the WPBA will be a participant in the upcoming edition. The possibility of the return of a global women’s club championship is closer now that Asia will have their first competition. It will only feature four teams, but is a good start to crowning a true champion and we look forward to covering it at the end of the month.
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