Rwanda
The semifinals finished in Rwanda this week, starting with Game 2s on Monday. Kepler tied their series with The Hoops and APR edged REG to tie that series too. REG took the lead with a win in the first Game 3 on Wednesday and Kepler managed to grind out a win over The Hoops to get the advantage in that series. With no sweeps in the cards, Game 4s were played on Friday and the Hoops tied the series again with a win over Kepler and then APR tied their series with REG. Those results meant two deciding games on Sunday, including REG looking to advance after suffering their first defeats of the season. It was another good game before they eliminated APR and then The Hoops edged Kepler for one final time.
Australia
The remaining NBL1 conference finals were played this weekend ahead of next week’s national tournament. The Knox Raiders are ready to defend their national title, taking the lead early in the South conference final on Saturday to get the win over the Waverley Falcons, which also get to play in the national tournament. The Warwick Senators took the lead in the West conference final and ended up knocking out the top seeded Cockburn Cougars. The East conference final was on Sunday and it ended up being a close game, but the early lead for the Bankstown Bruins held up in their win over the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.
The playoffs started in Big V’s top division on Saturday. The Pakenham Warriors took care of the Western Port Steelers fairly easily, but there was a seeding upset in the other game when the Bulleen Boomers raced past the Bellarine Storm. The top seed in the middle division, the Melbourne University Black Angels, rolled to a win in their semifinal against the Camberwell Dragons. It was much closer for the other team that got a bye to this round, but the Altona Gators edged the Whittlesea Pacers on Sunday. In the lowest division, both semifinals ended up with seeding upsets on Saturday as the byes did not help the top seeds. Candice Rogers grabbed 20 rebounds to secure a Surfcoast Chargers surprise of the Chelsea Gulls. The other two teams had tied in the standings, so it was not quite as big of a shock when the Wallan Panthers got 24 rebounds from Emmie Gardner in their win over the Blackburn Vikings.
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