Thanks for the update. Significant hopes bound up with having these two players ready to rhumba in Rio.

form

Yes I believe Penny is just holding Maya's place on the team until she is healthy and rested up.

Cambage a measly 36 & 7 in her game. Pull your finger out, Liz!

Interesting thought. I wouldn't expect it, given how little money she'd make here, but in terms of Opals prep it's a nice thought.


Penny had 31 pts last night btw, in a 14pt loss vs the league's top team.

Liz 22 & 14 in a 6 pt win to help her team to 7-1

I believe Penny has committed to a full Opals program in 2016. There is a break in January in the WNBL which is for the Opals to go over to Rio and play against 6 other countries. I am hoping she pops up and leads that squad, apparently it will be a squad of 20 and the Rio 12 will come from that.

Also to add Penny is in the top 10 in WCBA for points, assists, steals and blocks!

21 points, 12 boards & 1 dunk (yes, that is a stat they track on boxscores in China) for Liz last night in a rare loss for 7-2 Shanghai, and 26 points, 3 boards & 3 steals for Penny in a win to take her team to 5-4

Lizzy 25 & 13

Penny another monster game with 38 points.

Something fishy with the rebounding numbers from that game. Penny listed with 3 boards, but her whole team had 15, and the opponents 14. Dodgy.

Penny ledging it up again tonight.
30 points, 11 boards, 6 steals & 2 assists.

Shanghai has a mini break so Liz is back in Oz atm.

Hey mate, already on to the update! I was just going to post the same. She only played 3 quarters as well due to their rules that if the other team doesn't have an import apparently the team with the import can only play quarters 1,2 and 3. The Penny train is rolling!

You found a schedule on the next round of games in English at all. I am coming up empty at the moment.

It looks like Tuesday night is the next Penny game.

I'm guessing it's a best-of-3 series because the same 4 teams as last night are playing, but home teams have swapped.

25 points, 11 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals tonight for Penny in her 3 quarters of action, and most importantly a win, which evidently qualifies her team for the next stage of play.

Next stage of the comp is underway so both aussies are back in action now. Last night:

Liz 30 & 14

Penny 30 & 11

Lizzie got the W over Penny last night

Lizzie 27pts and 11 boards.
Penny 1 assist shy of a triple double if you don't mind! 18pts, 12 boards & 9 assists.

Both players consistently putting up great numbers for their teams. Thanks for the updates.

Penny 26 points, 9 boards, 7 assists & 7 steals in a useful contribution, but her team still went down.

Liz 23 & 7 in a rare loss for her team.

Yeah Penny seriously needs some help from her team mates, but answer me this, pretty sure Wei is on Shanxi and is taller than Lizzie, think she is 206cm, how on earth does Penny at 6'1" (185(ish)cm) outrebound the taller players on the team and she looks to be playing point guard at times.

I mean I know she does everything but really, at 206cm just jack the ball in there and get the job done. Ok she may miss a few.

Only 1 other player scored double figures for Shanxi and that was 14 points.

Liz 26 & 12 in a heavy loss to Tina Charles' team. They're still 3-1 though.

PFT 14 & 10 in 3 quarters in her team's first win of this "2nd stage" of league play. They're now 1-3.

Liz 28 & 4 in an overtime win tonight

PFT 31, 6 & 5 but her team lost by 5
Someone get the poor girl some decent teammates!

Couldn't agree more with you mate, bugger me! PFT getting it done and the rest just stand there, I probably would as well at her brilliance, but if you are on the court you need to get buckets not be a spectator. I thought Shanxi had that tall chick, not sure if she is playing.

Wei Wei (206cm) played 17mins for 12pts.
Shanxi results and box scores here
http://www.asia-basket.com/team/China/Shanxi_Flame/17772?Women=1&Page=2
Most of Penny's team mates do seem to be spectators...

Liz's team played Penny's overnight, and ran over them in the 4th for a 76-71 win.

Liz 37 points, 15 boards & 3 blocks
Penny 18 points, 3 boards & 3 assists

Penny posted 26pts, 7 boards and 4 assists in Shanxi's lose last night. Shanxi had a 2nd quarter like Rangers did in the 4th last weekend, just stopped to a hault and only bagged 10 to oppositions 20.

Penny playing a lone hand, as majority of imports are doing as well.

Liz 19pts, 12 boards in a win last night.

Don't quite know how the 2nd stage works, but it seems to go for quite a while. So not sure if Shanxi are in trouble with only 1 win in the 2nd stage, but Lizzie's team seems to be keeping up the winning goods.

The individual stats are often relevant to the depth of the team and competition. Unfortunately the comp in China is not a strong one, it just pays better than the wnbl does. Penny and liz will always have good stats , just wish they were playing in our league , imagine how good it would be to have our stronger players filling spots on aussie teams, it would certainly help the spirt here.

Totally agree with you, its unfortunate our league just can't get sponsorship or salary budget to get our home grown players back. Or on the flip side our players don't feel like dropping close on $400-$500K to play at a guess.

You can't blame them though, it is their job.

Shanghai came up short against Xinjiang (featuring Tina Charles) on Saturday night, but Liz had a massive night piling on 36 points @ 70% to go with 19 boards, 3 blocks, 4 steals & 3 assists.

Shanxi went down yet again. They had an 8 point lead at 3Q time when Penny had to sit out (as foreigners must do in that league if their opponent doesn't have a foreigner), but blew it in the 4th to lose by 2.
18 points, 7 boards, 3 assists & 2 blocks for Penny in her 3 quarters of action.

32 points (and 4 boards) for Penny in her final game in China.
Maya Moore has now arrived to replace her as the team's foreign player for the rest of the season.

Last game of 'stage 2' was a good one for Liz too.
31 points, 20 boards, 2 steals & 3 blocks,
in a win that sees Shanghai in top spot at 8-2.

It's just Liz representing Australia in China now, and she's doing a great job so far in Round 3.

Game 1: 26 points, 15 boards, 6 blocks (Win)
Game 2: 42 points, 16 boards (Win)
Game 3: 35 points, 12 boards (Win
Game 4: 25 points, 17 boards (Loss)

how much longer in the season ? Luuuc

I'm not sure.
Typically it finishes around the end of Feb.

Where has penny gone if maya Moore has replaced her ?

There's a bit of speculation around the twitterverse about Penny regarding various European leagues but I haven't seen anything solid yet.
Personally I'm glad she's not overloading herself. She's doing the opposite of LJ, she's looking after her body and as a result she is still performing at a pretty high level when she does play.

Sylvia Fowles kept Liz to a very rare quiet game last night. 10 points & 10 boards in Shanghai's 58-71 loss in Beijing.

Eventful week for our Lizzy.

In the return game vs Beijing she played a lot better, this time piling on 30 & 17 in her matchup with Fowles, but her team still went down by 5.

Then on Thursday night she had 28 & 11 and 3 blocks in a 2 point win, but she also got suspended for 1 game for this hit on Yelena Leuchanka...

Can't see much improvement in her style lol

Yelena is really not popular with the Shanghai players right now! She copped another one to the face, in last night's game.

(For some reason the board is not letting me post the proper link to it, but the business end of it is shown on Ticha Penicheiro's twitter:
https://twitter.com/TichaPenicheiro/status/685884502330228736

Really? You're trying to justify that hit?

That's piss weak by Cambage. A punch/slap to the face of a defenseless person. Danny Green disapproves.

Catching up with Liz's numbers now that the regular season has finished.
Since my past post she has got:
* 20 & 9, and
* 12 & 10 ... both in losses to Tina Charles' team
* 25 & 10 in a big win
* 31 & 12 also in a win, to finish the season

Her team (Shanghai) finished 3rd overall.

Playoffs begin Feb 2nd.

Some odd (lack of) rules in that league, as Candace Parker will join Guangdong for the playoffs, replacing Yelena Leuchanka as their import. Pretty handy ring-in!

Quarter final game 1
Big 93-66 road win for Shanghai
Cambage missed just 1 FGA and 1 FT on her way to 26 & 6 in the 30 minutes she was allowed.

Quarter final Game 2
Shanghai completes the 2-0 sweep 77-61
Cambage 32pts, 13 reb, 2 blk, 2 stl, 2 ast in her 30 minutes.

5-game semi final series vs Beijing (Sylvia Fowles) starts on Feb 16th, with Beijing having home court advantage. Big test for Liz.

The other semi series is Xinjiang (Tina Charles) vs Guangdong (Candace Parker)

Interesting first night of semi finals action.

Candace Parker scores 48 but her team still loses in OT.

Liz is held to 11 points (4/5 from the field. Sounds like some major double and triple-teaming happening there) ... but her team still gets the 68-66 win.

Wonder if this contributed to Liz's moodiness today...

The other night she had 12 points & 12 boards - a low-scoring night by her usual WCBA standards. Sylvia Fowles went off for 40 points that game as Beijing levelled the series.

Then last night it was just 8 & 6 for Liz, limited by foul trouble to 27 minutes. Fowles (31 & 15) and Beijing took a 2-1 lead in the series.

Cambage & Shanghai have now been eliminated from the semi finals. Liz had 30 & 11, but Big Syl went "anything you can do..." with 31 & 12 in a 79-70 win, to take the series 3-1.