World of Basketball April 14th

Asia

The finals concluded in Japan with both teams looking to get the advantage on Saturday. The Iris took the lead in the first half to get that win, but the Red Wave bounced back on Sunday with a stifling win to avoid elimination. That set up the deciding game on Monday that saw the Red Wave grab enough of a lead by halftime to take home the crown.

The playoffs started in Kazakhstan and top seed Astana Tigers picked up a pair of wins over Caspiy on Saturday and Sunday.

The upset was complete in China after a new champion was crowned. Guangdong followed up their big opening win at home, by taking the first road game on Tuesday. Sichuan avoided the embarrassment of being swept at home by getting their first win. Guangdong then wanted to make sure that they could pick up the home win on Sunday to avoid visiting the top seed again and took care of business in the second half to stun the heavy favorites. The league juggernaut had been expected to have an even easier path to the championship this year as they were able to bring in two big name foreign players alongside their plethora of national team caliber players. Guangdong had their share of experienced national team players, but had non-WNBA players in their foreign player slots and still managed to record three decisive wins.

Australia

It was a busy week in the NBL1 as Haliegh Reinohl had a 21 rebound game in the South conference. The standout performance in the West conference came from Karly Murphy, who had a 40 point, 25 rebound effort. Stacey Barr had a 30 point game and Nici Gilday had a 33 point game. In the East conference, Ella Gale had a 22 rebound game and Madeleine O’Hehir had a 31 point game. The leading scorer in the Central conference was Brooke Basham with 36 points while Olivia Levicki had 28 rebounds.

There was also a full slate of games in Big V as Emily Lytle had a 30 point game in the top division. Even by her lofty standards, Emmie Gardner had an incredible rebounding game in the third division with 34 boards in under 35 minutes.

Games were on Tuesday again in NWBU and the Burnie Tigers continued to hold a strong lead after their win over the Devonport Warriors. The Latrobe Demons bounced back with a win over the last place Smithton Saints. The Penguin Blues are also tied for second place after crushing the Ulverstone Redhoppers behind a 30 point, 10 rebound, 15 assist triple-double from Ellie Collins and another 30 points from Ava McDonald. Young Bailey Flavell continues to get in a ton of games before she heads to Hawaii to start her college career and had 31 points for the Somerset Heat in an easy win over the Wynyard Wildcats.

Americas

The semifinals in Mexico started this weekend with games on a Friday-Saturday schedule and Mieleras picked up a pair of easy wins over Universidad Modelo for the sweep. Zacatecas won the first game on the road, but Libelulas evened the series the next night to force a deciding game.

A new week of games in Brazil started on Tuesday with Mesquita’s win over Blumenau. Araraquara more than doubled Maringa’s scoring in an easy win on Wednesday. There were two games on Thursday as Corinthians rolled past Cerrado and Campinas pulled away from Santo Andre in the second half for a decisive win. Friday’s game was close with Ourinhos using a fantastic second half to leave with a win over Sao Jose dos Campos. Sunday’s game went into overtime before Corinthians defeated Sampaio. Mesquita used a dominant first quarter to put their game against Maringa out of reach early on Monday.

Around Europe

Lena Bilic earned MVP honors in the cup in Croatia as she gets ready to head to UCLA as Tresnjevka won the championship game on Sunday. Sibenik made it to the final having withstood Asiah Dingle’s 45 point game the previous day. Elisabeth Hansen had 31 points for Falcon to help offset Caroline Wich’s 32 point game for Abyhoj and prevail in overtime to finish a sweep and win the championship in Denmark. Olympiacos won their fourth consecutive title in Greece after two more wins over Athinaikos. Esperides Kallitheas also finished their series against Iraklis for the right to stay in the division with a win on Sunday. Samorin defeated Trencin in the series to avoid last place in Slovakia. Martina Krajcirova had 31 points to start the seventh place series.

Carolina Rodrigues had a 31 point game in the playoffs in Switzerland. Asianae Johnson had a 30 point game to avoid elimination in Sweden only to see her team lose the deciding game in the next contest. Becca Wann-Taylor had a 30 point game in Portugal, but could not keep her team from being eliminated in the playoffs. Irina Nebesnaia had 23 rebounds in Moldova’s playoffs. Paula Cirsa had a 30 point game in Latvia’s bronze medal series, but her team eventually lost. Juicy Landrum had a 26 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist triple-double to start the finals in Kosovo, but her team lost. Brittany Dinkins had 35 points in a playoff game in Iceland, but there will be one deciding game after a battle in another series that saw Daisha Bradford score 31 points in a loss where Tinna Alexandersdottir had 32 points in the win. Carmen Tyson-Thomas had a 20 point, 20 rebound, 10 assist triple-double in the playoffs in Finland.

Chase for Promotion

Edremit finished a perfect season in Turkey’s second division to grab a spot in the top flight with the bracket for the playoffs behind them now set. Zakyia Weathersby had a 35 point, 22 rebound game, but her team did not make that final stage. Segle XXI defeated Sevilla as the top two teams in their half of Spain’s third division met, sealing first place. The regular season concluded in Italy’s second division with brackets set for the all-important playoffs.

Notable Individual Performances

The regular season concluded in Ukraine and featured a 30 point game from Oksana Mollova. Shawnta Shaw had 31 points and Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu had 20 rebounds, but a win was not enough for their team to not finish last by three games in the relegation group in Luxembourg. Lauren Saiki dished out 16 assists in a loss in the British league. Jelena Tadic had a 36 point game in the Bosnian league, which also featured a blowout where Feniks only managed 18 points, a total that both Adna Merdanovic and Lamija Talic surpassed for Lavovi.