Americas
Another week of play started in Puerto Rico on Monday and Moca continued to sit in the lead with a win over Carolina. Santurce won at Hatillo on Tuesday to stay all alone in second place and then Isabela closed strong in a win over Ponce. Caguas defeated Yauco on Wednesday as both teams had been stuck on three wins. Carolina used a second half comeback to defeat Juana Diaz. On Thursday, Ponce’s struggles continued with a loss to Santurce, which missed a chance to move into a tie for first place when Moca prevailed in double-overtime over Manati. Ponce got 30 points from Talia Von Oelhoffen on Friday to get a much-needed win over Juana Diaz, which got 23 rebounds from Imani McGee-Stafford. Yauco dropped into a tie for last place after their loss to Carolina. Santurce defeated Hatillo on Saturday and Moca dropped into a tie for first place after getting edged out by Caguas. The game on Sunday featured two teams looking for their fourth win to avoid last place and Manati got the victory over Yauco, which became the first team to eight losses.
It was another double-round week in El Salvador, starting with a Salvadorenas win over Santa Tecla on Tuesday. Arlenys Romero had 30 points on Wednesday, outscoring Capitalinas herself in San Salvador’s win. Santa Tecla defeated Santa Ana on Thursday. Friday’s game was quite exciting as Yenifer Jimenez’s 36 points helped Ahuachapan get the win, withstanding a 43 point outburst from Anisleidy Galindo for San Salvador, which lost for the first time. Santa Ana got the win over Capitalinas on Saturday. The first round-robin concluded on Sunday with Salvadorenas moving into a tie for first place despite Ahuachapan’s latest efforts to disrupt the standings with another 36 points from Jimenez.
Japan
The season started in Japan this weekend with the league’s cup competition as the teams in the East group stage played their games with two spots in the final stage on the line. The Sunflowers won the two games in their bracket to advance and the Magic won their lone game to join them after getting a bye. Besides the debut of the new team Solua, the big story of the tournament was the reintroduction of foreign players who did not attend school in Japan to the league, which could shake up this season.
Europe
More competitions started in Europe this week, including cup competitions in Switzerland on Monday, France on Saturday, and the British league on Sunday. League play started in Luxembourg on Sunday, albeit without the defending champions, and big individual performances did not take long to appear. Stefanie Kulesza made her presence felt in her professional debut with 37 points for Contern in a win. Emma Broermann had 20 rebounds in the next game and Lauren Van Kleunen closed the day with a 35 point effort. League play also started in the Netherlands.
Arab Club Championship
The group stage continued on Monday with Al Qurain trying to pick up their first win in the opening game. Al Fatat got two fantastic performances though with 37 points and 21 rebounds from Raneem Elgedawy and 32 points from Porsche Poole get a big win. Al Hala was also winless and facing undefeated Al Fuheis, losing decisively as neither team bothered to give minutes to their foreign players. Cosider also remained undefeated after closing the day with a 101-64 win over Al Sharjah.
On Tuesday, Al Fatat nearly pulled off the late upset of Al Fuheis, getting 30 points each from Raneem Elgedawy and Porsche Poole. The defending champions held on though, relying on their stars more than in previous games as Aliyah Mazyck scored 30 points. Al Qurain lost to Al Sharjah in the next game, but Italee Lucas did manage to get the minimum needed to record a triple-double. The last game of the day had championship game implications and Al Ula had the lead early, but they ended up needing 40 points from Chennedy Carter to fend off Cosider.
There was another day of rest on Wednesday and then the teams finished the round-robin on Thursday. Yacine Diop completed an impressive tournament despite Al Hala’s struggles, delivering a 35 point, 12 rebound, 11 assist triple-double in a win over Al Qurain. Immediate medal games after the round-robin instead of semifinals meant that Al Fuheis had the ability to influence the gold medal matchup. They took a huge lead against Cosider and then finessed a loss by the margin that would set up an immediate rematch. Stuck in the bronze medal game as a result, Chennedy Carter put on a show for Al Ula with 47 points in their win over Al Sharjah.
The medal games were on Friday and Al Ula struggled, seeing both of their foreign players foul out, meaning that Raneem Elgedawy’s 39 point effort got Al Fatat the bronze medal. They will have to regroup quickly as they try to win the club championship of all of Asia next. Al Fuheis was able to successfully defend their title with a second straight win over Cosider even though it was not as decisive as they might have hoped.
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