Mexico
The championship series started on Mexico as this round was a more traditional best-of-five format. As the top seed, Chihuahua got to host the first two games on Tuesday and Wednesday. They got the win on Tuesday, but Feyonda Fitzgerald made sure that Aguascalientes would head home tied, scoring 30 points in a big second half comeback. Chihuahua bounced back on Saturday with their own second half comeback as Chennedy Carter, who had transitioned more to a bench scoring role over the course of the season, had 30 points to restore their advantage. Aguascalientes faced elimination on Sunday, but got the win to force a deciding game on Wednesday.
Australia
All of the conferences in NBL1 were active this week as there continues to be a three-way tie at the top of the Central conference. The North conference also finished up play on Saturday this week after Beyonce Bea had a 33 point game for the South West Metro Pirates and Amandine Toi had a 33 point game for the Logan Thunder. The Cockburn Cougars had a huge win in the West conference to stay undefeated and the Warwick Senators kept pace with a 31 point game from Stacey Barr.
It was a very busy weekend in the South conference as teams continue to chase Geelong at the top of the standings. Abby O’Connor had 33 points, but the Kilsyth Cobras lost. The other big scoring games came in head-to-head battles. Nya Lok had 31 points in a Ringwood Hawks win over the Ballarat Miners, which got 31 points from Georgia Woolley. Stephanie Reid had 30 points for the Diamond Valley Eagles, offsetting 34 points from Keely Froling to leave the Launceston Tornadoes coming up short twice as they tried to get out of the bottom part of the standings.
The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles had incredible weekend in the East conference, defeating the two teams that they were tied with in the loss column at the standings on back-to-back days to take the lead. Taylor Wurtz had 33 points in their win over the Newcastle Falcons and then they got a win over the Norths Bears. Shyla Heal had a 35 point game in a wild Bankstown Bruins win. Abi Curtain had 37 points in a dramatic Sydney Comets comeback, but the weekend ended with them on the wrong side of the show when Madeleine Norris dropped 50 points on them for the Sutherland Sharks.
In Big V, the McKinnon Cougars picked up a pair of wins in the top division, getting a 36 point effort from Emily Lytle in the first game. The Melbourne University Black Angels won two games in the middle division as Maddi Geislinger grabbed 20 boards in the first game. Rebounds were also the story in the bottom division as Amy List had 20 in a game for the Blackburn Vikings and Emmie Gardner had 21 for the Wallan Panthers.
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