Americas
The regular season concluded in Puerto Rico this week with Sam Fuehring scoring 31 points on Tuesday to help Moca lock in second place after their win over Ponce. Wednesday marked the last day of the season for the two eliminated teams with neither game having any impact on playoff seeding. Ponce did end their season with a win, using a fast start to get past Caguas. Yauco was left in last place by two games after losing to Manati.
The playoffs started on Friday with one side of the bracket starting their quarterfinals. Hatillo stole a game late on the road against Moca and then Isabela took care of business against Caguas. Top seed Santurce started with a win over Juana Diaz on Saturday even though Imani McGee-Stafford grabbed 20 rebounds for the visitors. The other game went into overtime before Manati could prevail at home after Carolina’s comeback fell short. On Sunday, Moca tied their series with Hatillo after a road win and Caguas did the same against Isabela. Santurce made sure that there would be at least one sweep on Monday, jumping out to an early lead to eliminate Juana Diaz. Carolina looked ready to force a deciding game, but Manati forced overtime before losing.
The week in El Salvador started on Tuesday with Santa Ana’s win over Capitalinas. Overtime was needed on Wednesday in the battle of the top two teams, but Arlenys Romero scored 30 points for San Salvador in the win over Salvadorenas, which had to turn around and play again on Thursday, losing to Santa Ana. San Salvador continued with a win over Capitalinas on Friday while Salvadorenas bounced back on Saturday with a win over Ahuachapan. Capitalinas was no closer to their first win after losing to Santa Tecla on Sunday.
Maria Jourdheuil had 22 rebounds in a game in Argentina, where Hindu is the only team that is still undefeated. All of the teams in their conference have at least one win while the South is also seeing some measure of parity with all teams picking up a win.
New Zealand
Another round of games started with the Queens sweeping the Kahu on Friday. The Pouakai edged the reserve game on Saturday, but Laina Snyder scored 30 points in the main game to get the Whai the win. The Hoiho edged an exciting reserve game on Sunday and then finished the sweep of the Kahu in the main game.
Japan
It was the opening weekend of both divisions of the league with the traditional Saturday-Sunday series format. The top division had the unusual occurrence of four splits, starting with the Antelopes and the Sunshine Rabbits. The Vickies played the Wings, the Sunflowers played the Magic, and the Red Wave played the Iris. There was only one split in the bottom division as the Queen Bees salvaged it against the Aranmare. The Cougars had a decisive sweep of the Egrets while the league newcomers lost both games to the Koalas, which got a 31 point effort from Cyesha Goree in one of their victories.
Around Europe
Trencin could only manage 16 points in Slovakia, a total that Maria Stefancova, Olga Yatskovets, and Terezia Kraislova all exceeded themselves for Ruzomberok. Lovely Sonnier had 10 steals in less than 19 minutes in a cup game in Malta. Desiree Ramos had 13 points in a cup game in Luxembourg. Montenegro started top division play this weekend and Zorana Radonjic had 31 points while Milena Mijuskovic had 20 rebounds. League play also began in North Macedonia.
Chase for Promotion
Kateryna Shtyk had the highest scoring game in Ukraine’s second division with 31 points while Viktoriia Anisimova had a 30 point game. Liatu King was the leading scorer in Turkey’s second division this week with 35 points while Avinar Kaya led local players with 31 points and Dekeiya Cohen grabbed 20 rebounds. Hannah Pratt had a 40 point, 21 rebound game in Portugal’s second division. Maja Manten collected 20 rebounds in Germany’s second division. The youngsters of France’s federal training program collected a rare win in the second division despite Pauline Lafant’s 35 points for Nice while Julie Tetart had a 21 rebound game.
Notable Individual Performances
In Serbia, Sara Krnjic had 21 rebounds and Hristina Marjanovic had 17 assists. Lauryn Taylor grabbed 21 rebounds in Romania. Becca Wann Taylor was back in a starring role in Portugal with 32 points in a narrow win. In Kosovo, Adrienne GodBold and Isabella Mauricio each had 30 points while Paige Powell had 31 points in a win where Anita Grainca grabbed 24 rebounds for the opposition. Jada Guinn was the leading scorer in Iceland with 37 points while two other big statlines came on opposite sides of the same game as Brittany Dinkins had 16 assists and Maddie Sutton had 21 rebounds. Lauren Heard had consecutive 31 points games in Finland and Unique Drake turned in a 32 point game. Young Liseth Vain had 32 points in Estonia. Dajah Daniel had 39 points in Cyprus. In the Bosnian league, Elma Feukic had 30 points and Andjela Lalovic had 24 rebounds. It was a sister act in Belgium as Ella Declercq had 32 points and Leni added 30 points. Simone Sill had 34 points in Austria.
Leave a Reply