France have already qualified for the EuroBasket Women 2009 in Latvia and not participating in the Additional Qualification round (ADR.
However we will be following the progress of teams with players currently playing in the French league and also players who have made their mark in the French league.
For Belgium there are Laurence van Malderen, playing for the French club side Aix-en-Provence and Sara Leemans for Cob Calais.
For Croatia there is Ana Lelas currently playing for Bourges Basket and Petra Stampalija who spent four years in the French league.
We will also follow some of the games from the EuroBasket Women 2009 relegation group games as there are players who are currently playing in France on some of the rosters.
On this page you find full game reports from the matches between Croatia against Belgium and Finland against Great Britain with short summaries of the two other games.
You can read more basketball news by choosing the links below or by scrolling down the page:
Croatia too experienced for Belgium
Arvid Diels who has become the new head coach of the Belgium national team and who is without Ann Wauters and Kathy Wambe called up a number of youth international players.
His squad includes two players we spoke to during the 2008 U18 Women European Championships Women Division B in Skopje Macedonia last summer: Anne-Sophie Strubbe and Jana Rana.
Croatia who are without Sonja Kireta for the January EuroBasket Women Additional Qualification matches did not waste much time in getting into their rhythm and opened the scoring with a three-pointer from Ivana Jurcevic (below right in picture).
The first two minutes belonged to Croatia as they led (8-2).
Belgium's first points came from Rana.
Despite Croatia's early dominance, points from Laurence Van Malderen and Sara Leemans (right) kept Belgium in striking distance (10-17).
Croatia stepped on the accelerator to outscore their guests (17-5) to win the first period (34-15).
The hosts continued to dominate for the first three minutes of the second period (40-23). Yet Croatia made the mistake of dropping their guard for three minutes allowing Van Malderen and Leemans to score 7 unanswered points.
However Croatia regained control with Andja Jelavic leading the way to go into the break with a comfortable advantage.
Croatia were never in danger for the rest of the EuroBasket Women qualifier match and went on to win the match (103-81).
Lelas who plays for Bourges Basket led the scoring with 23 points for Croatia while Leemans who is playing for Cob Calais led Belgium with 29 points. Van Malderen who is playing at Aix-en-Provence scored 17 points.
Eurobasket Women 2009 Box Score
Ukraine made to work hard by Bulgaria
Olexandra Gorbunova scored 22 points and captured 11 rebounds as she led Ukraine to victory on the road against Bulgaria (81-76).
Bulgaria had the better of the first half and led (45-38) at the interval with former LFB player Gergana Slavcheva leading the way with 15 points.
Ukraine put together a 19-3 run late in the third period to go into the final period ahead (67-59) and take control of the game.
Ekaterina Dimitrova only played 13 minutes for Bulgaria, took 4 rebounds and scored 3 points.
Eurobasket Women 2009 Box Score
Mason and Great Britain held off Finland
Finland, playing at home, were without their young point guard Kai Ignatius who picked up a nasty injury at the start of the Finnish domestic season.
They were also without Michaela Moua who had signed to play in Nice as medical cover for Evija Azace but then sprained her ankle.
Great Britain's roster included Rosalee Mason (left) who is currently playing in France with the NF1 team Colomiers.
The first period belonged to Finland as they dominated the proceeding to lead (27-13) with Reetta Piipari, Taru Tuukkanen and Tiina Sten scoring 9, 8 and 7 points each.
Great Britain switched to zone in the second period. With 2:01m Sarah McKay finding her way to the basket with 8 points and Kim Butler's 7 points their side came back into the game.
Finland went into the interval leading (43-36) after some clutch three-point shooting.
Full court press and zone defense by Great Britain in the third period kept the hosts scoreless for almost seven minutes.
In the meantime they went on a 12-0 run which was concluded by a Kristy Lavin trey to give the lead for only the second time in the game (48-43) to her team.
Finland fought back but treys from Lisa Hutchinson and Levin allowed Great Britain to go into the final period with a 6-point advantage (56-50).
Mason scored her 9th and 10th point of the game from the free-throw-line as Great Britain stretched their lead at the start of the final period (58-50).
Finland's only weapon for fighting back was to work the perimeter and fire in three-points. Vilma Kesänen and Laura Sario finished off moves from the land of many as Finland came to within 2 points of their guests (56-58).
Mark Clark ,the Great Britain head coach, had no choice but to change offensive systems. He got his players to work more in the paint and was rewarded with back to back baskets by McKay and Butler.
All the same Finland had not abdicated and with the game in money-time Sten once again made it a 2-point game (61-63).
The last 90 seconds was littered with errors and missed shots as neither side was able to put a sequence of passes together.
Great Britain held on to win (63-61) with Mason finishing with a double-double 10 points and 12 rebounds
For Great Britain Butler led the scoring with 17 points while McKay finished on 15 points. For Finland Tuukkanen led the way with 16 points.
Eurobasket Women 2009 Box Score
Bosnia's young side no match for the more experienced Romanian side
Bosnia and Herzegovina are another nation planning for the future. Their side was led by youth internationals Matea Tavic (10 points) and still only 16 years old and Irena Vrancic (12 points), another youth player who we spoke to last summer in Macedonia.
They were two key players for Bosnia in their first match against Romania.
Bosnia's leading scorer was 19-year old Anja Stupar with 13 points.
On the other hand Romania's squad was led by 38-year old veteran Svetlana Dragusin who scored 29 points as Romania ran out winners (101-68).
Ann-Marie Parau who played for SJS Reims last season scored 9 points for Romania.
Eurobasket Women 2009 Box Score
The players of interest from Bulgaria are Ekaterina Dimitrova currently playing for Basket Landes in the LFB and Jaklin Zlatanova who played for Tarbes in the last three seasons and is currently playing in Spain.
