EuroBasket Women 2011: Tears of joy as well as tears of disappointment

After four weeks of EuroBasket Women qualifiers 15 pieces from the 16-piece jig-saw puzzle have been placed.

From the eight teams that have qualified through the qualification series, 2012 0lympic hosts Great Britain have rewarded FIBA Europe for reinstating them in Division A by winning their group and qualifying directly for the finals.

Lithuania, Montenegro and Turkey had also booked their tickets for Poland 2011 before the final days actions.

The biggest tears of joy came from the Latvian players who crushed Serbia (80-55) to sneak into second place in Group B.

The first phase of the EuroBasket qualifiers has come to an end with Croatia, Israel, Latvia and the Slovak Republic picking up the last direct qualification places.

The qualification of Belarus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Russia and Spain for the 2010 FIBA World Championship exempted them from the qualifiers while Poland qualified as hosts.

The last place will be determined during the Additional Qualification Round.

You can read the EuroBasket Women 2011 news from all the groups by clicking on the links below or by scrolling down the page:

Group A: Croatia qualified

Group B: Latvia stepped up a gear

Group C: Turkey finish top of group

Group D: Suspense till the end

Look back on the EuroBasket Women news from Great Britain, Montenegro and Turkey: qualification assured.

The results from the final evening of the qualifiers:

Belgium 70-85 Croatia
Italy 68-59 Netherlands
Finland 77-83 Bulgaria
Turkey 72-65 Montenegro
Israel 79-72 Romania
Latvia 80-55 Serbia
Ukraine 70-66 Great Britain
Slovak Republic 73-57 Germany

Croatia put together a 15-0 run from late in the second quarter and early in the third to take hold of the game (53-40).

Ann Wauters' scoring kept Belgium in the game and with five minutes left to play, her team trailed by just 3 points (68-71).

This was as close as Belgium would get as Croatia went on a 10-0 run to put the game out of their opponents' reach.

Iva Sliskovic (left) and Jelena Ivezic both scored 18 points while Marta Cakic contributed 17 points in the (85-70) victory.

Wauters fired in 27 points for Belgium.

This road win secures a place at EuroBasket Women 2011 for Croatia.

Italy's fate was sealed before they went on the court to play the Netherlands in the final game of the evening with Croatia taking the final qualification place from the group.

The Netherlands who wanted to avoid finishing bottom of the group took full advantage and dominated the first half (42-29).

Raffaella Masciadri (right) started the Italian revival with back to back three-pointers during the third quarter. She scored 13 points during the quarter as Italy reduced the deficit going into the final quarter (45-48).

The game remained close until the 37th minute with Italy leading (58-57).

Italy then went 10-from-12 from the charity stripes to close out the game (68-59).

Masciadri led the Italian offensive effort wit 16 points while Giorgia Sottana and Jenifer Nadalin scored 12 points each.

For the Netherlands Leonie Kooij scored 17 points and former Challes-les-Eaux player Marlous Nieuwveen contributed 11 points.

Group A final table

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Israel, playing at home, were forced to work hard by Romania for the victory (79-72). Once again Liron Cohen and Shay Doron were the big scorers with 27 and 21 points each.

Israel appeared to have had the game wrapped up leading (73-59) and stepped off the accelerator.

Romania rallied back but were stopped by three-pointers by Cohen and Doron.

For Romania the leading scorers were Gabriela Marginean and Claudia Pop with 16 and 15 points.

Latvia waited until the second half to blow away Serbia (80-55) in a convincing style to secure second spot in the group.

Latvia scored 53 points during the last 20 minutes and knocked Serbia off from the top of the group.

Gunta Basko (left) with 22 points and 11 rebounds was the driving force behind the Latvian victory.

Group B final table:

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Turkey had to wait until money-time to put away Montenegro in an evenly contested match with only the title of group winners at stake.

Montenegro had regained the lead (65-64) through Ana Baletic with two minutes left to play.

Esmeral Tuncluer and Nevriye Yilmaz shared the remaining points as they sealed victory for Turkey (72-65).

Tuncluer led Turkey with 17 points while Kübra Siyahdemir added 14 and Yilmaz 13 points.

Iva Perovanovic scored 19 points for Montenegro.

In the other group match Finland played their hearts out in front of their supporters. The game went back and forth for 45 minutes as overtime was required to separate the teams.

In the end Bulgaria won the match (83-77) with 24 points coming from Jaklin Zlatanova.

For Finland Tiina Sten scored 22 points.

Group C final table:

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Group D turned out to be the group of death and home advantage counted for little.

Great Britain had already qualified coming into their game against Ukraine and were looking to improve their final seeding for the EuroBasket draw.

They kept the hosts and their fans quiet early on with some excellent shooting from the arc to lead (12-4).

Ukraine pulled themselves together and reduced the deficit by the end of the first quarter (15-17).

The second quarter was an evenly balanced shoot-out with Great Britain coming out on top 24-23 to lead (41-38) at the interval.

After the break Ukraine stepped up defensively and took control of the game with a 12-0 run that enabled them to go into the final quarter leading (52-47).

Great Britain came fighting back during the final quarter. But the experience of Olena Zherzherunova (left) and the calmness of Olena Ogorodnikova and Nataliia Isachenko were just enough at the end to seal the victory (70-66).

Ukraine required a victory from Germany to snatch second place in the group.

Jo Leedham once again led the Great Britain attack with 19 points and Chantelle Handy added 10 points.

Despite the efforts of Linda Fröhlich with 27 points for Germany, the Slovak Republic did just enough to win the game (73-67).

The Slovak Republic made the decisive break during the third quarter to go 12 points clear (68-56).

Germany restricted the hosts to just 5 points in the final quarter but also went scoreless for the last three minutes themselves.

Germany find themselves finishing bottom of the group while Pokey Chapman (right) and the Slovak Republic are off to EuroBasket Women again.

Lucia Kupcikova led the way with 15 points for the hosts while Ivana Jalcová and Luisa Michulková added 14 points each.

Anne Breitreiner added 11 points for Germany.

Group D final table:

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