2012 FIBA Europe
U18 European Championship
Qualifying Round ranking set

The first phase of the FIBA Europe U18 European Championship for Women, Division A in Bucharest came to an end without any exploits.

With Turkey beating Greece earlier in the day from Group B, Romania had a slim chance of qualifying for the second round provided they beat Russia by at least 23 points.

The Russians did not give the Romanians a chance and won (80-38), thereby eliminating Romania and qualifying Greece.

In Group D, Belgium finally gave a glimpse of the youth basketball that have made them one of the top European nations in recent years with a (73-64) win over Italy.

Unfortunately the result has no bearing on the competition, Italy are Group D winners and take maximum points into the qualifying round while Belgium face a new competition in the relegation round.

Hind Ben Abdelkader (in picture) with 5 assists and Antonia Delaere combined for 51 points for Belgium with 29 and 22 points respectively. For Italy nobody played for more than 27 minutes and Francesca Gambarini and Marida Orazzo both scored 14 points.

In the other game in the group Serbia beat Slovenia (65-56) on the back of a solid performance by Aleksandra Stanacev who finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

Serbia finished second behind Italy and will take the points for the victory into the next round.

Oranje Fever is high in Bucharest as the Netherlands continue to infect the locals with their performance. With the Group C title already in the bag they had to remain focused to beat the already eliminated Czech Republic (61-51). Once again Isabella Slim with 13 points and 8 rebounds was decisive in crunch moments but it was her team-mate Kourtney Treffers (in picture) who led the scoring with 17 points while Emese Hof picked up 9 rebounds.

Karolina Severova was once again the best player for the Czech Republic with 16 points.

In the other game Croatia defeated the Slovak Republic (73-60). They were able to pull away with a 20-4 run during the last 15 minutes after Barbora Bálintová from the Slovak Republic had to sit down due to foul problems.

Bálintová led the Slovak attack with 22 points while Zofia Hruscakova finished with her third double double of the championship with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

For Croatia Ruzica Dzankic had fun from beyond the arc while reaching a game high 22 points.

In Group B,Turkey used a good defensive system in the first quarter against Greece by just conceding 4 points to set the tone for the match as they walked away with another victory (58-42).

25 minutes is the most time any player from Turkey had to play. 10 players got on the scores sheet with just Pelin Bilgic reaching double digits with 12 points.

You may watch the FIBA Europe highlights from this game below:

Russia ended any chance of Romania escaping the relegation round with a (20-7) opening quarter. The Russians never dropped their guard despite the frequent rotation of players. All 12 players clocked up at least 10 minutes with just one player reaching 22 minutes.

Polina Fedorova from Russia had the honour of being the game top scorer with 12 points.

In Group A, France ran over Poland in the first quarter (23-8) and then had to pace themselves for the remaining 30 minutes.

Despite the poor start from Poland they actually played better than France in the second quarter. For a while they gave the impression that they could win the match.

However with the hard work of Marième Badiane, good passing by Olivia Epoupa (6 assists) and the scoring of Mamignan Touré (14 points) and Valériane Ayayi (13 points), France remain unbeaten at the FIBA Europe U18 championship in Bucharest.

In the other group match, Spain had no troubles in getting past Sweden (74-52) with the duo of Ariadna Pujol and Maria Arrojo combining for 40 points in the victory.

Highlights from this game can be watched below: