Brazil
After a break for national team play, the league resumed with their playoffs and the quarterfinals started with one game per day this week. The teams that finished lower in the standings got to host the opening games, hoping to start well on their quest for upsets. Sao Jose dos Campos got 33 points from Manuela Rios on Thursday to win at home against Ourinhos in the 4-5 matchup. Araraquara avoided that issue on Friday, leaving with a decisive win over Mesquita. Top seed Sampaio also had a solid win when they visited Cerrado on Saturday. Campinas got another win for the home teams when they took the opener against Corinthians on Sunday.
Australia
All of the conferences were busy in NBL1, including in the South, as the end of the regular season approaches. Geelong is still undefeated, followed by the Knox Raiders now after their win over the Keilor Thunder, which also lost to the Ballarat Miners after Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 30 points. Isabella Brancatisano had a 20 rebound game for the Mt. Gambier Pioneers. The Frankston Blues got 34 points from Marta Hermida and then won again the following day thanks to 33 points and 21 rebounds from Lou Brown. The Eltham Wildcats bounced back from that earlier game with a 31 point effort from Kennedy Dickie to close out the week.
The Southern Districts Spartans and Logan Thunder are still tied at the top of the North conference standings. The latter got 33 points from Leah Scott in their first win as Unique Thompson had 22 rebounds for the Mackay Meteorettes. They held on to a win over the Rockhampton Cyclones the next day, but Moira Joiner did have a 19 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist triple-double in the loss. Ashley Arlen had 40 points in a loss for the Brisbane Capitals.
Sarah Mortensen had 32 points as the Cockburn Cougars kept their perfect record in the West conference as the Warwick Senators fell a game further behind them. Anneli Maley and Natalie Chou each had 32 point efforts, but the Perth Redbacks lost a wild game to the Mandurah Magic. Mykea Gray had 31 points, but the South West Slammers dropped into a tie for last place. Teige Morrell had a 36 point effort for the Lakeside Lightning to have the highest scoring game. Nici Gilday had 31 points as the Goldfields Giants ended the weekend with a loss.
The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles continued to hold on to their lead in the East conference with the final round weekend of games approaching. The Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Spiders survived 32 points from Kristina Moore to defeat the Inner West Bulls and then Jessie-May Hall led them with 30 points, but they lost to the Illawarra Hawks in the last game of the round. Caitlyn Jones had a 46 point game for the Albury Wodonga Bandits as they will be dangerous in the playoffs.
There is one round of games left in the regular season of the Central conference and teams were still trying to grab the top seed. After the Sturt Sabres fell back from the tie for first place, they were also able to drag the West Adelaide Bearcats back a game with them after a home win, leaving the Forestville Eagles all alone at the top. The highest scoring game of a busy week of games came from Amanda Paschal, who had 34 points in a Norwood Flames loss.
The Pakenham Warriors got one game closer to the Bellarine Storm at the top of the standings in Big V with the Bulleen Boomers and McKinnon Cougars still giving chase. The Whittlesea Pacers took over second place in the middle division, also picking up a game on the Craigieburn Eagles. Asia Avinger had 33 and 31 point efforts for the Mildura Heat. In the bottom division, one of the games featured 31 points from Ai Yamada in a win for the RMIT University Redbacks as Amy List had 22 rebounds for the Blackburn Vikings.
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