LACEY LOWDOWN

A day after arriving in Turkey Thomas Abercrombie took the court for his new club Demir IBB – which is a lot quicker to write than Demir Insaat Buyukcekmece Basketball club. The Tall Blacks and Breakers swingman shook off some of his jet lag by coming off the bench to score 7 points (3/4FG) in 13 minutes of action but Demir, 13^th on the Turkish League ladder, were comfortably beaten by 4^th placed Banvit BK 89-65.

Also beaten at home by higher placed opposition was Zaragoza in the Spanish League. Isaac Fotu produced his third double double of the season and his highest rebound tally – 17 points / 12 rebounds – but it wasn’t enough to prevent Zaragoza going down 99-88 to Baskonia. Zaragoza with a 7-14 record is slipping towards a relegation battle after this latest defeat.

In the Spanish third division Sammic ISB jumped back to the top of the table with a 72-67 victory against Zamorano. Canterbury Rams forward Mike Karena continued his good form with 12 points and 9 rebounds for Sammic that now boast a 16-6 record.

In Italy Le Mura Lucca was defeated by rivals Famila Schio 88-60 in the Italian Women’s Cup Final played in Venice at the weekend.

Lucca trailed by just a point at half-time 31-30 and the same margin at the end of the third (53-52) but with free scoring Tall Ferns forward Jillian Harmon held to just 6 points it was blitzed 35-8 in the last quarter.

The two teams meet again in a fortnight in league action.

Erin Rooney has averaged 20 minutes a game across her first 7 appearances for Artego Bydgoszcz in the Polish League. Artego are 6-1 since the Cantabrian’s arrival in early January and now sit 5^th on the league table with a 13-7 record after their latest victory, a nail biting 85-83 win against close rivals Gorzow Wielkopoiski. Artego dished an impressive 22 assists in the encounter with Rooney contributing 4 of those as well as 4 points.