World of Basketball September 23rd

Puerto Rico

On Tuesday, Hatillo defeated Isabela and Morovis defeated Moca. Wednesday’s two games were a Manati win over Lares and a Santurce win over Carolina, which is still trying to navigate down a player. Thursday’s game was the last before the All Star festivities and Moca defeated San German. That event took place on Saturday with Geovanna Rios winning MVP after leading the Island Stars past the Metro Stars 117-92. Paola Maldonado won the skills competition, Lyannis Torres won the Hot Shot Competition, and Hillary Martinez won the three point contest. There was no rest for two teams as Moca defeated Santurce on Sunday. Isabela got a 31 point, 18 rebound, 11 assist triple-double from Mikayla Pivec on Monday, but lost to Morovis in overtime.

El Salvador

The champion was crowned this week with the finals starting on Wednesday and then continuing on Saturday and Sunday. San Salvador got 20 rebounds from Anisleidy Galindo to survive the opener despite 33 points from Yayma Boulet. Boulet had 43 points on Saturday to help Metapan avoid elimination with Galindo scoring 30 points in the loss. That meant a deciding game that Metapan edged at home to lift the trophy.

Arab Club Championship

The tournament continued on Tuesday with Cosider defeating Ghaz Al Shamal in the first game. Dyaisha Fair had 30 points and Imani McGee-Stafford had 24 rebounds to help Al Ula fend off Al Wahda. Brooque Williams had 36 points to keep Al Fuheis undefeated with a win over Al Fatat. After the teams had Wednesday off, games resumed on Thursday with Ijeoma Uchendu’s incredible 41 point, 34 rebound effort getting Al Fatat a win over Ghaz Al Shamal, which got 32 points from Chelsey Shumpert. Rebecca Akl had 30 points for Cosider in a win over Al Wahda. Imani McGee-Stafford had 20 rebounds and Al Ula handed the hosts their first loss with Angela Tompkins grabbing 21 rebounds for Al Fuheis. The end of group play was on Friday and Ghaz Al Shamal defeated Al Wahda in the first game. Al Ula defeated Al Fatat to seal the top spot over Al Fuheis, which defeated Cosider with 35 points from Angela Tompkins. After a day off, the semifinals were played on Sunday and Dyaisha Fair had 31 points and Imani McGee-Stafford had 26 rebounds to get Al Ula the win over Cosider. Al Fuheis withstood a 36 point, 21 rebound effort from Ijeoma Uchendu to defeat Al Fatat in the other game.

Europe

This was the first weekend with top divisions starting including the leagues in Slovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium. Luxembourg has a history of big statlines and the first weekend was no exception even with reduced teams this season as Shawnta Shaw had 34 points in a loss while Mikayla Ferenz had 35 points for the opposition. Beyonce Bea had a terrific professional debut with a 40 point game. The projected top two teams met again after the first competition of the season and Grengewald Hueschtert defeated Dudelange.

The Swedish cup had their qualifying round for teams that finished outside of the top four last season. The Romanian and German cups also started play this week. Portugal completed their unusual preseason cup format where only the final was a full length game so that they could fit more games in and Benfica won the first available trophy.

The Turkish second division continued playing and there was not quite the scoring of a typical round, but Zakyia Weathersby had 23 rebounds and Olena Stashchuk had 20 rebounds. Second divisions in the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, and Sweden had their opening weekends.