MANNHEIM, Germany — Naples moved into the European Division II girls championship game with a physically draining 43-28 semifinal victory Friday over Baumholder.
Center Kelsey Anderson led the way for Naples, scoring 15 points and generating put-back baskets or trips to the free-throw line with nine second-half offensive rebounds.
“It’s not just me,” Anderson said after giving as good as she got against Baumholder’s inside presence of Kendall Williams and Tiffany Guyette. “It’s a team effort. We have great team chemistry on and off the court.”
The final against II-South champion Vilseck at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Benjamin Franklin Village Sports Arena will be a rematch of a regular-season game. Naples handed Vilseck its only defeat of the season, 49-35 in January.
Vilseck eliminated SHAPE 50-34 on Friday. Ashley Hicks scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and Cathy DelaRosa added 13 points and eight assists to lead the Lady Falcons. Alania McKinnis grabbed 10 rebounds for Vilseck..
Ebonee De Vos topped SHAPE with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while teammates Ashley Jordan and Justine Shelton scored 10 and 9, respectively.
Naples, which got 13 points from guard Nyrika Davis, reached the final by rebounding from a 28-25 loss to Würzburg on Wednesday night, the first loss of the season for American Schools in Italy League champion Naples.
“That helped us,” said Anderson, who was 7-for-11 from the foul line Friday. “It helped calm us down and showed us we needed to push hard in the tournament.”
In the girls Division III event, which was to wrap up pool play Friday evening, III-South champion Hanau and Vicenza were in a Friday showdown for the Pool A title. Hanau went to 3-0 after downing Hohenfels 41-35 Friday; Vicenza was 2-1.
A Hanau victory would send the Panthers and Hohenfels into today’s semifinals; a Vicenza victory would put it and Hanau in the semis.
Rota, the 2005 champion, clinched the Pool B crown after edging Giessen 30-28 and blitzing the American Overseas School of Rome 46-16 Friday to finish the round robin 4-0. Giessen and Ansbach, both 2-1, were facing off later Friday for the other berth in Saturday’s 10:15 a.m. semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
