Brazil
The final in Brazil continued on Monday and Sampaio won their second straight home game. That result left Campinas facing elimination on Friday, but their dominant second half made sure that the series was extended. Sampaio took a massive first half lead on Sunday and closed out the series, winning the championship after three seasons of losing in the finals.
Australia
The playoffs continued in NBL1 as the South conference had their quarterfinals this weekend. The Diamond Valley Eagles started proceedings with a major seeding upset by knocking out the Eltham Wildcats. The top seed Knox Raiders made sure that they avoided falling to the same fate with a decisive win over the Melbourne Tigers. The Sandringham Sabres won at the Keilor Thunder in the closest seeding matchup to complete Saturday’s schedule. Sunday’s game went to overtime before the Waverley Falcons edged past the Casey Cavaliers.
The semifinals in the North conference were both on Saturday with the teams battling to reach next week’s championship series. The top seed Logan Thunder got 32 points from Amandine Toi, but they fell behind in the first half and the Mackay Meteorettes left with the narrow win. There also ended up being an upset in the other game as Mia Loyd had a 27 point, 12 rebound, 12 assist triple-double for the Cairns Dolphins, but the Townsville Flames made a late run to escape with the win.
The playoffs started in the West conference with upper and lower brackets. In the elimination games, Mikayla Pivec had a 10 point, 12 rebound, 15 assist triple-double and Mia Jacobs grabbed 20 rebounds, but the Mandurah Magic still lost to the Joondalup Wolves on Friday. Delanie Crawford’s 31 points were not enough for the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday in their loss to the Goldfields Giants. Teams in the upper bracket were looking to only need one win next week to advance to the championship game. The top seed Cockburn Cougars withstood a 36 point game from Jayda Clark to get past the Warwick Senators on Friday. Stacey Barr had 34 points for the East Perth Eagles on Saturday, but their late charge was not enough against the Rockingham Flames.
There were two elimination games in the East conference with teams trying to get within a game of the championship. On Saturday, Emily Lytle had 40 points for the Albury Wodonga Bandits, but the youngsters of the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence still prevailed. The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles prevailed in Sunday’s game over the Newcastle Falcons.
There was one game in the Central conference on Saturday to decide which other team would advance to the championship game. The Sturt Sabres took the lead early at home and defeated the Norwood Flames to set up a meeting of the top two teams all season long.
In the top division of Big V, Javyn Nicholson had a 32 point game for the McKinnon Cougars and Amy Patton had a 20 rebound game for the Warrandyte Venom. The other two divisions finished their regular seasons and the Melbourne University Black Angels remained undefeated with another winner over their closest competitor, the Altona Gators. There were plenty of big statlines as Ahriahna Grizzle turned in 40 and 33 point games for Wyndham. Eilish Feehan had 32 points for the Whittlesea Pacers and Briana Gray had 31 points for the Craigieburn Eagles. The Chelsea Gulls continued their winning streak in the bottom division.
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