Mexico
The championship came down to one game in Chihuahua on Wednesday and it certainly delivered the excitement. Aguascalientes was looking for their second road win in the series and took the halftime lead. The home team, which had been so dominant in the regular season, raced back in the second half, but fell short 96-92 to fail at the final hurdle again.
Australia
All of the conferences in NBL1 were in action this week, including the South, where Geelong continues to lead with the Keilor Thunder close behind them after Jasmine Dickey had a 31 point game. Dallas Loughridge had 32 points, but the Dandenong Rangers lost after Jaden Owens had a 12 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double for the Casey Cavaliers. Bec Cole had a 32 point game for the Waverley Falcons and Sarah Elsworthy dished out 15 assists for the Ringwood Hawks.
There was no movement at the top of the North conference as Nicole Fransson had 35 points in a Southern Districts Spartans win and the Logan Thunder also won. Unique Thompson had 31 points for the Mackay Meteorettes while Cierra Walker and Kahlaijah Dean had 30 point games for the Northside Wizards and Ipswich Force respectively. Shannon Ryan had 20 rebounds for the Sunshine Coast Phoenix.
The Cockburn Cougars are still not meeting any resistance in the West conference after another easy win kept them two games above the Warwick Senators. The most exciting game of the weekend was certainly the double-overtime thriller that was the last game of the round. The Goldfields Giants were able to get the win after Nici Gilday had 46 points. She was not the only player to play in every second of the game as Abby Cubillo had a 21 point, 12 rebound, 10 assist triple-double for the East Perth Eagles, which also got 41 points from Sasha Goodlett.
The East conference featured one of the most impressive shooting displays that any player will put on anywhere in this world this year after Riley Lupfer hit 16 of her 22 three-point attempts for a 55 point game. The Albury Wodonga Bandits found themselves on the wrong side of a scoring outburst the next day though as Lauren Nicholson had 48 points for the Sutherland Sharks a day after they got 21 rebounds from Madeleine Norris in a tough loss. Carla Pitman had a 32 point, 14 rebound, and 11 assist triple-double for the Norths Bears and Kristina Moore had 34 points for the Inner West Bulls.
It is a very crowded week in the Central conference with upcoming weekday games too. The Sturt Sabres fell out of the tie for the lead after losing to the North Adelaide Rockets, which continue to chase that top trio. The Forestville Eagles and West Adelaide Bearcats each won both of their games to stay tied for the lead.
The weekend in Big V’s top division started with a matchup of the top two teams that lived up to the billing, going into overtime before Courtney Strait’s 33 points helped the Bellarine Storm increase their cushion even though Eliza Hollingsworth had 21 rebounds for the Pakenham Warriors. The Warrnambool Mermaids found themselves on the wrong end of two big statlines after Briana Bailey had 32 points for Wyndham and Madeline Holland had an 18 point, 12 rebound, 10 assist triple-double for the Hume City Broncos.
The Craigieburn Eagles were surprised in the middle division by the Camberwell Dragons in an overtime loss even though Briana Gray had 30 points. The division leaders bounced back the next day despite a 26 rebound game from Rachel Winters for the Western Port Steelers. Asia Avinger had 34 points in a loss for the Mildura Heat and Indiana Bodley had 30 points for the Whittlesea Pacers.
All three games in the bottom division had big statlines. Candice Rogers had 35 points for the Surf Coast Panthers while Amy List had 33 points for the Blackburn Vikings. Emmie Gardner was the leading rebounder again, grabbing 24 boards for the Wallan Panthers.
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