World of Basketball October 7th

Puerto Rico

The regular season neared its end with one game on Tuesday that had Morovis won at Santurce, which had already locked up the top seed. Alexis Jennings had 31 points in Moca’s loss to Isabela on Wednesday. Kristen Spolyar had 35 points to push Hatillo towards the finish with a win over Manati. Santurce just edged Carolina to prepare for the playoffs. The regular season finished on Thursday with both games having playoff implications. The first game to finish would give the winner the 2 seed and Kiara Leslie had 30 points to help Carolina grab that spot from Morovis. The other game was for the last spot in the playoffs and Sidney Cooks made sure that it was San German moving on in their first season with 37 points while Geovana Rios added a 12 point, 13 rebound, 10 assist triple-double to help eliminate Lares.

The quarterfinals started on Saturday with Shae Kelley grabbing 24 rebounds as Santurce defeated San German while Moca got a road win at Morovis. The other two series started on Sunday and Hatillo got the road win at Manati and Carolina got the better of Isabella at home. Moca finished their sweep on Monday at home against Morovis and then Santurce left San German with the win they needed to advance.

New Zealand

The season finally started on Friday after an interesting offseason that saw the league cut a deal with a television company to move to this spot in the calendar in exchange for enough money to significantly increase salary. That allowed teams to recruit strong foreign players and bring Australian players over for the special Asia/Oceania roster spots. The league is set to expand internationally next season, but the five teams from last season will contest this edition. As was the case last season, there will be an abbreviated game, 16 minutes in total, before the game where only allows bench players to play, but the league took some steps to minimize the blatant lineup manipulation of last season, not allowing the three unrestricted imports to play.

The season started with the Hoiho defeating the Queens in the reserve game, but the main game saw the reverse result and Jacinta Beckley was the first person to play over 40 minutes in total in a day this season. On Saturday, it was McKenna Dale’s turn to play over 40 minutes, participating in a pair of Whai wins over the Pouakai. It ended up being the same story for the Hoiho on Sunday with a win in the reserve game only to see the Kahu win the main game.

Around Europe

A number of competitions started over the past week, including the league for teams from multiple countries in the Adriatic. More teams had their first games in the Baltic with Gabriele Sulske scoring 30 points in a loss. AEL Limassol won the Super Cup to tip off the season in Cyprus. League play started in Portugal and Schekinah Bimpa had a 31 point game while Teresa Ada grabbed 20 rebounds. The opening weekend in Moldova included a 17 point, 13 rebound, and 11 assist triple-double from Ecateriana Saramciuc. Grace Stone had a 36 point game during Finland’s opening week.

Every game in Iceland’s top division had a big game by somebody, starting with Lore Devos pouring in 41 points. Brittany Dinkins had a 31 point game, Alyssa Cerino had a 34 point game, and Denia Davis-Stewart grabbed 28 rebounds. Over in Greece, Athinaikos made big name foreign signings to try to make a splash, getting 30 points from Jessica Shepard in the opener, but losing as Merritt Hempe had 38 points for Olympiacos. Sam Galanopoulous had 30 points in a tough loss. The top division also started in Ireland.

Chase for Promotion

Channon Fluker had 20 rebounds in Turkey’s second division, helping Edremit end up as the last undefeated team in the early race to make the climb up to the first division. Yacine Diop had 43 points in a loss. The second division started in Iceland and Bergdis Thorsteinsdottir grabbed 22 rebounds in her first game. It was the first weekend of play for the second division and most of the third division in Spain as well as the second division in Italy and France.

Notable Individual Performances

In Switzerland, Abigail Fogg had a 31 point game and Shannon Ryan had a 20 rebound game. Fanny Wadling had a 13 point, 13 rebound, 10 assist triple-double in Sweden. Nylah Young had a 34 point game in Slovenia. There were two big efforts in a blowout win in the Netherlands as Jade Brughuis had 38 points and Anke Rinkhof had a 14 point, 16 rebound, 10 steal triple-double. In Malta, Makaila Napoleon had a 31 point, 21 rebound game and Mikayla Brandon had a 28 rebound effort. A double-round week in Luxembourg produced a 32 point game from Kyaja Williams, a 33 point game from Alexus Johnson, and a 21 rebound game from Olivia Lane. Brooke Flowers had 20 rebounds in the British cup. Kylie Kornegay-Lucas had a 39 point game in Germany. In Estonia, Liseth Vain’s 30 points were more than enough to get her team a win on their own and Carolina Rakhonen matched that feat with 30 points the next day. Eliska Halova had a 34 point game in Czechia. Asiah Dingle had a 12 steal game in Croatia. Taya Hanson had a 33 point game in Belgium.