World of Basketball September 16th

Puerto Rico

A new week started with a pair of games last Monday that saw Santurce defeat Hatillo and Moca defeat Lares. Even down a player, Carolina won at Isabela on Tuesday and then Morovis won at San German. On Wednesday, Lares got an impressive win over Manati and Moca defeated Hatillo. Santurce just got past Morovis on Thursday and then Isabela defeated San German. Moca edged Manati in an excellent game on Friday and then Teana Muldrow’s 30 points led Carolina past Hatillo. On Saturday, San German came back to defeat Lares and then Dre’Una Edwards had a great game for Manati in an easy win over Isabela. Sunday’s game went to overtime before Santurce could get past Hatillo. There was a pair of games on Monday and both came down to the wire before Santurce could grind out a win over San German and Lares could complete their own comeback over Carolina.

El Salvador

The semifinals were played this week with the first games on Wednesday and then games on Saturday. Rachel Contreras had 20 rebounds, but Batanecas lost in the opener and then they could not avoid the sweep after Arlenys Romero had 32 points to get San Salvador another win. Yama Boulet had 36 points to get Metapan the first win and Salvadorenas also lost at home to get swept.

Arab Club Championship

After last year’s interruptions, this year’s tournament only has six teams with Jordan’s Al Fuheis hosting. The teams will play a full round robin before the playoffs to determine the champion. Sunday’s first game had the newcomers Al Ula from Saudi Arabia edging the more established Cosider from Algeria. Al Fatat, a historic women’s sports club from Kuwait, got an incredible 34 points and 35 rebounds from Ijeoma Uchendu to defeat Al Wahda of Syria. The hosts welcomed Iraq’s Ghaz Al Shamal in the last game of the day and win. Uchendu had another 25 rebounds in the first game on Monday in Al Fatat’s win over Cosider. Dyaisha Fair had 31 points, but Al Ula lost to Ghaz Al Shamal, which got 30 points from Chelsey Shumpert. Al Fuheis finished the day with a win over Al Wahda.

Japan

The professional league has not started yet, but this weekend marked the start of the 91st Empress’s Cup, a competition featuring teams from many levels of play in the country. The first two rounds were played this weekend with high school, college, and corporate teams playing in regional rounds to advance to the round when top division teams enter.

Europe

No top division leagues have started play yet, but the Super Cup was played between the two powers in Luxembourg. Alexus Johnson had 38 points to lead Grengewald Hueschtert to the win over Dudelange, which got 35 points from Lauren Van Kleunen.

The second division in Turkey did have their full first round as teams look to earn spots in the top division for next season and teams often rely on their lone foreign player. Channon Fluker started the party on Friday with a 38 point game for Edremit. Kirklareli needed a 39 point game from Doniyah Cliney to get past Adana, which got 31 points from Ilknur Yildizhan.