World of Basketball March 24th

Asia

After both semifinals went the distance, the finals were not quite at that level in South Korea even though all of the games were close. BNK won again on the road on Tuesday and then swept the top seed Woori Bank with a narrow win at home on Thursday.

The semifinals started on Friday in China and Shanxi stayed much closer to Sichuan than expected, but still lost at home. Guangdong was able to start the other series with a seeding upset on Saturday after defeating Inner Mongolia.

There was another pod of games starting in Taiwan with four more games played over the weekend. Cathay Life and Taiyuan Textile won both of the their games, leaving Chunghwa Telecom and Taipower waiting for their meeting on Tuesday to figure out who would at least get one win in this round-robin.

Australia

It was only a one game week in North West Tasmania with teams playing on Friday. The Devonport Warriors are suddenly slumping after Bailie Wickham had 30 points to lead the Somerset Heat to a win over them as they try to climb out of the bottom half. That meant that the Burnie Tigers were able to sit all alone in first place after Megan Mullings had 33 points and Macey Crawford had a 20 point, 12 rebound, 11 assist triple-double in their win over the Ulverstone Redhoppers, which got 35 points from Nikki Parker. Jade McCoy had 33 points for the Penguin Blues in a win over the Smithton Saints and the Latrobe Demons defeated the Wynyard Wildcats.

Another state had leagues starting this weekend with Victoria’s Big V returning to three divisions this year and having the two lower levels open play. The top division starts play next weekend along with the start of play for NBL1, which has regionalized divisions, but crowns a national champion at the end of the season.

Americas

There was another set of Saturday-Sunday series in Mexico and Mieleras is close to perfection after sweeping Universidad Modelo. Mineras also got a sweep, getting 37 points from Briahanna Jackson in their first win over Husky’s. Penguins won the first game to pull out of last place, but Toritas salvaged a split behind a 38 point game from Suanly Tani Salas. In the middle of the standings, Dragons swept Avispas.

Another week in Brazil started with a close win for Cerrado over Maringa on Tuesday. Cerrado could not continue that momentum on Thursday, losing to Ourinhos. Corinthians had a big second half on Friday to defeat Santo Andre. There were two games on Saturday, starting with Araraquara’s easy win over Blumenau followed by Sao Jose dos Campos fending off Campinas late. Sampaio got the win over Mesquita on Sunday to end the week.

Around Europe

The winner was crowned in the unified Albania-Kosovo competition with semifinals on Tuesday and the medal games on Thursday. Flamurtari defeated Peja in the final for a win for Albania while Bashkimi got the bronze medal with a narrow win over Partizani after Aulona Muhadri collected 22 rebounds having seen Adrienne GodBold score 30 points in their earlier loss. A winner was also crowned in the second division of the Adriatic and Podgorica lost to Jezica to make it all Slovenian teams in the medal places. The championship game was also close with Ilirija getting past Maribor. Novi only managed 15 points in Montenegro’s domestic league, matched by Teodora Brkovic for Primorje and surpassed by all of Kristina Ilic, Natasa Radovic, Mia Bajo, and Antonija Tripovic.

The Baltic continued with Sofia Kosareva scoring 30 points in a loss. One half of the finals in Malta is set, but Ashiala Jackson had a 23 rebound effort to keep her team in contention as Janai Crooms had 37 points, but it was not enough for the sweep. PAOK secured safety in Greece, but Esperides Kallitheas bounced back to win the first game of the relegation playoff. The semifinals also started and Jessica Shepard had 32 points to get Athinaikos an opening win.

The cup was awarded in Portugal with Quinta dos Lombos defeating Benfica, which had advanced in overtime the previous day, to grab the trophy. Maccabi Ashdod defeated Hapoel Jerusalem in the cup final in Israel. Monday was the last full day of league play there and Alisia Jenkins had 22 rebounds while Stasha Carey had 31 points. The cup was also awarded in Iceland with semifinals on Tuesday and the final on Saturday. Maddie Sutton had a 19 point, 16 rebound, 15 assist triple-double, but Grindavik was able to get the win to advance. Brittany Dinkins had 35 points to get Njardvik to the final and then delivered a 31 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double alongside Emilie Hesseldal’s 20 rebound effort for their team to win.

Chase for Promotion

In Turkey’s second division, Asia Strong had 36 points, Essence Booker had 35 points, and Sule Aktas had 34 points. Estepona lost so Leganes is all alone in first place in Spain’s second division. Segle XXI’s lead grew by a game over Sevilla in their half of the third division. The regular season concluded in Romania’s second division and included a 32 point, 22 rebound game from Faith Simpson. Emma Huff had a 41 point game in Portugal’s second division. Daniele Paunksnyte had a 32 point game in Lithuania’s second division. Susanna Toffali had a 30 point game in Italy’s second division. Rebecca Tsobgny had an 11 point, 12 rebound, 12 assist triple-double in France’s second division.

Notable Individual Performances

The playoffs are about to start in Switzerland and Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman had 37 points while her teammate Nila Blackford had 24 rebounds and Shannon Ryan had 31 points and 28 rebounds in the upper group. Quinta Van Schijndel had a 31 point game in the Netherlands. Valeria Lisii had a 32 point game in Moldova. Alexus Johnson had a 36 point, 22 rebound game in Luxembourg while Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu had 30 points in the loss as the playoffs are about to start. A battle in the British league saw Daniella Turner’s 31 points help her team get the win after Claire Jacobs had 34 points in the loss. Julianna Okosun had a 33 point game to close the regular season in Denmark. Iva Todoric had a 27 point, 12 rebound, 11 assist triple-double in Croatia. Daniela Wallen had a 40 point, 23 rebound game in Bulgaria. In the Bosnian league, Brittiney Seymour and Almedina Ahmic each had 20 rebound games.