World of Basketball March 3rd

Asia

There is a tie at the top of the standings in Japan after this weekend, a full set of Saturday-Sunday series. The Magic prevailed in overtime to get a split with the Red Wave, allowing the Iris to create a tie with their sweep of the Sunshine Rabbits. The Sunflowers salvaged a split with the Wings and the Antelopes swept the Cougars. The second division had games on Sunday to finish their fifth round-robin and the Vickies got a win over the Aranmare while the Egrets lost to the Queen Bees and the Rabbits defeated the Koalas.

Both semifinals series started in South Korea and the home teams had winning starts to keep their homecourt advantage. Woori Bank got the win over the Stars on Sunday and then BNK defeated the Blue Minx on Monday.

The playoffs also started in China with games on Friday and Monday. Two series will need deciding games as Chennedy Carter’s heroics got her team the win in Hubei, but Shanxi tied the series, and Inner Mongolia tied their series after dropping the game at Shaanxi. There were two seeding upsets as Jiangsu, which did not finish far below Beijing, got a sweep and then Xinjiang swept Zhejiang. Top seed Sichuan has not even fielded a full lineup yet, but won both games against Heilongjiang. Guangdong swept Henan, Shandong swept Hebei, and Shanghai handed more losses to Fujian, which will need to rally when the next phase of the postseason is played.

North West Tasmania

It was another double-round week in the NWBU on Tuesday and Friday with a clear separation forming between the top and bottoms halves of the standings. Devonport is still undefeated and now holds a two game lead on the rest of the field. Smithton is still winless, surrendering 40 points to Bailie Wickham of Somerset to start the week. Latrobe stayed in the top group with a sweep that included a 32 point game from Sarah O’Neill. Two teams are tied with them after Penguin got a 25 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double from Ellie Collins in a game where Megan Mullings scored 35 points in the loss for Burnie. Nikki Parker had a 33 point game for Ulverstone, which is now at the top of the bottom half.

Mexico

Another full weekend of games was played in Mexico and Mieleras got another sweep, this time over Dragonas. Penguins picked up their first win after splitting with Husky’s. The battle of the bugs was an easy sweep for Libelulas over Avispas. Universidad Modelo swept Toritas.

Around Europe

The big game in the Adriatic was on Saturday with Celje avenging their early loss to defeat Buducnost ahead of a likely meeting in the championship game. Kibirkstis defeated Neptunas to win the cup in Lithuania as Sydney Taylor had 38 points. Piestanske Cajky defeated Ruzomberok to win the cup in Slovakia. The cup final in Serbia was between the Belgrade rivals and Red Star got the win over Partizan. The top two teams in the standings in Romania met in their cup final and Sepsi got a comfortable win over Targoviste. Depiro defeated Starlites to win one of the cups in Malta. Sitting in third place in the league, Saarlouis knocked off the top two teams, Berlin and Keltern, to win the cup in Germany. Montana edged Beroe to win the cup in Bulgaria.

Chase for Promotion

Leganes lost in Spain’s second division so there is a tie at the top of the standings with Estepona now. Aminata Sanogo had 20 rebounds in a third division game. Faith Mackenzie had a 36 point, 22 rebounds game in Romania’s second division. The second phase started in Portugal’s second division and Ana Ramos had a 31 point game. Amaiquen Siciliano had a 37 point game in Italy’s second division. Ragnheidur Einarsdottir had a 31 point game in Iceland’s second division and her teammate Jonina Karlsdottir recorded a 16 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double. Mondeville lost in France’s second division so Toulouse is all alone in first place and Fabienne Constant grabbed 21 rebounds in her game.

Notable Individual Performances

Marie Boirard had a 32 point game in Switzerland. Jessica Kelliher had 30 points in Sweden. Lotte Van Kruistum had a 31 point game in the Netherlands. Nikolina Ilic had a 32 point game in Montenegro and her teammate Janja Beljskas had 20 rebounds. Irina Nebesnaia and Tatiana Cecoi had dueling 20 rebound games in Moldova. Alexis Tolefree had 39 points in Kosovo and her teammate Juicy Landrum had an 18 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double. Alexis Prince had a 31 point game in Israel. Asiah Dingle had a 42 point game in Croatia. Cate Reese had a 37 point game in Belgium. Sina Hollerl scored 30 points in Austria. Aniylah Bryant had a 32 point, 13 rebound, 13 assist triple-double in Albania and her teammate Jainaya Jones had 11 steals while Dea Sali had a 39 point game for the opposition.

Jasmine Powell dished out 17 assists in Portugal and Becca Wann-Taylor had a 23 rebound effort. Lauren Van Kleunen had 37 points in Luxembourg in a game that saw Mikayla Ferenz score 31 points in the loss while Shawnta Shaw was the week’s leading scorer with 41 points. A double-round week in Iceland included 30 and 36 point games from Jasmine Dickey. Abby Beeman had a 34 point game, Amandine Toi had a 31 point game, and Maddie Sutton had a 12 point, 16 rebound, 11 assist triple-double. The big scoring outbursts in Greece came in the second set of games of the two-round week as Camryn Taylor had 34 points, Mya Berkman had 31 points, and Lasha Petree had 30 points. In the Bosnian league, Almedina Ahmic had 36 points and Ilhana Dzajic had 30 points.