Brazil
The semifinals started in Brazil this weekend with the same format as the last round. Sao Jose dos Campos was looking for their second straight upset from fifth place and got the start that they wanted at home on Saturday with a win over the top seed Sampaio. Sixth place Campinas was trying for the same outcome on Sunday, but second place Araraquara prevailed in overtime.
Australia
All of the teams in NBL1’s North conference played on Saturday to end the regular season and the Southern Districts Spartans held on to the top spot after withstanding a 30 point game from Erin Bollmann for the Sunshine Coast Phoenix. The Logan Thunder tied them in the standings after their win over the South West Metro Pirates, which got 36 points from Grace Champion. The biggest scoring efforts came in the same game as Tera Reed of the Gold Coast Seahawks and Kahlaijah Dean of the Ipswich Force each had 39 points. Courtney Woods had 33 points for the Northside Wizards and Cayla George grabbed 20 rebounds.
There is still one more week to go in the regular season in the West conference and the Cockburn Cougars won two more games to leave them a game from perfection. With her running mate on national team duty, Natalie Chou had 44 points for the Perth Redbacks as they are the one team with a bye next week. Sydney Erikstrup started the round with a 30 point effort for the Rockingham Flames in a fast start to her professional career with her teammate Alex Ciabattoni delivering a 12 point, 15 rebound, 11 assist triple-double. The Warwick Senators prepared for a showdown with the Cougars by getting 32 points from Stacey Barr and 31 points from Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard in a close win. Near the bottom of the standings, Erin Antosh had 30 points and Nici Gilday had a 21 point, 12 rebound, 12 assist triple-double for the Goldfields Giants to get a win where Tayjanna McGhee-Pleasant had 34 points in the loss for the Eastern Suns.
The playoffs started in other conferences on Saturday, including the South. Geelong’s undefeated run continued with a win over the fourth place Keilor Thunder. The second place Knox Raiders also got the win to advance past the third place Dandenong Rangers. Both losing teams are still in contention and will face the winners of the two elimination games. The first of those games saw Stephanie Reid pour in 38 points to get the seventh place Diamond Valley Eagles a win over the sixth place Frankston Blues. The other game was on Sunday and Bec Cole’s 32 points secured a win for the fifth place Waverley Falcons in a win over the eight place Ringwood Hawks.
The East conference also had their playoffs start on Saturday and there were two elimination games. The Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence finished in fifth place and got their youth national team players back in time to defeat the eighth place Canberra Nationals. JuJu Redmond had 30 points for the sixth place Bankstown Bruins to narrowly eliminate the Maitland Mustangs. The top four teams were also in action to advance closer to the championship game or face elimination. The teams were tied in the standings, but the Norths Bears prevailed from second place against the third place Newcastle Falcons. The top seeded Manly Warringah Sea Eagles defeated the fourth place Albury Wodonga Bandits.
In the Central conference, it was second place against third place for the chance to play for a direct spot in the final. The game ended up being quite tense as the West Adelaide Bearcats could not get their lead to hold up, letting the Sturt Sabres force overtime to win. After the loss, they next face the winner of the elimination game between fourth and fifth place. Jasmin Fejo had 32 points and the Woodville Warriors had a strong second half to get the win in that game over the North Adelaide Rockets.
It was a quiet weekend for individual performances in Big V as the regular season winds down and the playoffs are about to start.
EuroLeague Draw
The draw was conducted for the EuroLeague qualifying matchups and group stage on Wednesday with 21 teams entering this year. Just like last season, teams that make it to the main group stage will play a double round-robin. Each of the qualifying matchups is a two-game series and the team that hosts the second game will be listed first below:
A: USK Prague (Czechia), Girona (Spain), Gdynia (Poland), winner Bourges (France) vs Kibirkstis (Lithuania)
B: Schio (Italy), Sopron (Hungary), Charleville-Mezieres (France), winner Galatasaray (Turkey) vs Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe (Romania)
C: Fenerbahce (Turkey), Valencia (Spain), Olympiacos (Greece), winner DVTK (Hungary) vs UMCS Lublin (Poland)
D: Cukurova (Turkey), Landes (France), winner Zaragoza (Spain) vs Brno (Czechia), winner Reyer Venezia (Italy) vs Crvena zvezda (Serbia)
The defending champions USK Prague will have a new look as they are among the eleven teams that qualified directly for the group stage. Their league rivals Brno will try to get past qualifying again this year. Fenerbahce and Cukurova, who both advanced to the final stage, are the two automatic qualifiers for Turkey with Galatasaray looking to join them. Spain and France also have two automatic qualifiers with the possibility of a third representative. Spanish champions Valencia and regular season top seed Girona are already there with runners up Zaragoza trying to make it and also get to the final stage that they are hosting. French champions Landes are joined by cup winner Charleville-Mezieres, leaving regular season top seed Bourges needing to navigate a qualifying series.
Schio was the last team to make an appearance at the final stage last season and the Italian champions could be joined by Reyer, the team that they defeated in a memorable finals series domestically. Two other countries have an automatic berth and a team in the qualifiers. Hungarian champions Sopron return with runners up DVTK in qualifying and Polish champions Gdynia have a place while UMCS Lublin must navigate qualifying. Greek champions Olympiakos have an automatic spot while Romanian champions Sepsi must pass through qualifying again. Two countries without much recent representation will have their champions in qualifying as Kibirkstis carries the flag for Lithuania and Red Star will try to advance from Serbia.
EuroCup Draw
The EuroCup draw was also conducted on Wednesday with the final spots to be filled by winners of qualifying series as well as the losers of EuroLeague qualifiers. The team listed first in any qualifying series will be the team that hosts the second game of the pairing. Once the twelve groups are set, each team will play a double round-robin to determine which teams advance to the knockout rounds. Villeneuve-d’Ascq will get the chance to defend their title even though they finished lower than the continental places in the regular season in France.
A: loser Zaragoza (Spain) vs Brno (Czechia), Braine (Belgium), Magnolia Campobasso (Italy), Tresnjevka (Croatia)
B: loser DVTK (Hungary) vs UMCS Lublin (Poland), Namur (Belgium), Jairis (Spain), winner Universitatea Cluj (Romania) vs Student Nis (Serbia)
C: PEAC (Hungary), Elitzur Ramla (Israel), Uniao Sportiva (Portugal), winner Gernika (Spain) vs PAS Giannina (Greece)
D: loser Galatasaray (Turkey) vs Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe (Romania), Mechelen (Belgium), GEAS Sesto San Giovanni (Italy), winner Szekszard (Hungary) vs Brandys nad Labem (Czechia)
E: loser Reyer Venezia (Italy) vs Crvena zvezda (Serbia), Riga (Latvia), Emlak Konut (Turkey), Saarlouis (Germany)
F: loser Bourges (France) vs Kibirkstis (Lithuania), Keltern (Germany), Chomutov (Czechia), Peja (Kosovo)
G: Avenida (Spain), Panathinaikos (Greece), Neptunas (Lithuania), Nyon (Switzerland)
H: Lattes Montpellier (France), KP Brno (Czechia), Ragusa (Croatia), winner Dinamo Sassari (Italy) vs Panathlitikos Sykeon (Greece)
I: Angers (France), Estudiantes (Spain), Piestanske Cajky (Slovakia), Rapid Bucharest (Romania)
J: Besiktas (Turkey), Gorzow (Poland), Charnay (France), Athinaikos (Greece)
K: Ferrol (Spain), Benfica (Portugal), Zaglebie Sosnowiec (Poland), winner Ostrava (Czechia) vs Troistorrents (Switzerland)
L: Villeneuve-d’Ascq (France), Fribourg (Switzerland), Beroe Stara Zegora (Bulgaria), Sleza Wroclaw (Poland)
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