Brazil
The championship was decided in Brazil this week with Araraquara hoping to clinch the title at home on Tuesday while Sampaio was trying to win on the road again to force a deciding game over the weekend. The visitors had the lead at halftime, but the home team stepped up on defense in the second half and scored enough to lift the trophy for the third time in a row against the same opponent.
Puerto Rico
The season started in Puerto Rico this weekend with an increase back to ten teams this year after Lares, Morovis, and San German stopped fielding teams, but Caguas, Ponce, Juana Diaz, and Yauco joined. On Saturday, it was a good old school rivalry game when Santurce defeated Carolina. The other game saw Yauco lose to Isabela in their opener. Juana Diaz had an impressive start at home on Sunday, but Hatillo controlled the rest of the game for a late win. Moca edged Manati in the other game.
Australia
The last NBL1 conference champion was determined on Saturday with the final game in the West. The Cockburn Cougars were looking to finish undefeated against their conference foes with one more win. Stacey Barr had 35 points as the Warwick Senators had the early lead, but the Cougars took the lead by halftime and then pulled away late to best their closest competitors. They and the other four conference champions will join the defending tournament winners, the Waverley Falcons, in next week’s event to crown a national champion.
The playoffs continued in Big V on Saturday with the top division game determining the other team to advance to the championship game. The Bulleen Boomers continued to make a run as they got 37 points from Catelyn Van Es to defeat the Pakenham Warriors. Champions were crowned in the other two divisions as the Western Port Steelers finished an impressive streak from the four seed in the middle division to edge past the top seed Craigieburn Eagles. In the bottom division, Chloe Zielinski had an incredible game with 37 points to lead the Keysborough Cougars, which had been the dominant team all season, to the win over Gippsland.
Leave a Reply