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FIBA Europe U18 European Championship Women Division A
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The intensity of FIBA Europe competitions with 9 games in 11 days plus the daily training sessions sometimes lead to strange discussions.
Damir Grgic (right), the coach from Slovenia, decided not to play four of his main players in the match against Spain.
Spain ended up beating Slovenia by 32 points in a low key game.
Alina Iagupova from Ukraine would not have minded having a day off as she was allowed just 13 points in her her side's defeat against Italy.
Belgium and Hungary who have had a tournament to forget until this day recorded their victories in the relegation round.
The quarter-final jigsaw is slowly taking shape with Lithuania, Russia and Spain joining France and Italy in the knock-out stage.
The remaining four places will be decided during the last round of games of the qualification round.
Group E: To play or not to play
Group F: Lithuania topple France
Relegation group: Belgium and Hungary bounce back
Look back on the news from Day four
Group E: Spain and Russia keep on winning
Slovenia played with just seven players against Spain. Damir Grgic, the Slovenian coach, decided to rest four players who have played the most minutes.
The Spanish head coach Miguel Martinez Mendez was not sure what was happening but kept his players focused as they scored the 15 points of the game and led (20-2) by the end of the first quarter.
The Spanish coaching staff understood that Slovenia were not going to play any of the regular starters and started to turn their bench.
Spain went on to win (63-31) with Laura Gil and Mariona Ortiz scoring 8 points each while Bojana Adamovic from Slovenia was the only player in double digits with 10 points.
The Slovak Republic kept it close for the first 20 minutes against Russia despite having a zero day from Martina Kissová (right).
Russia went into the locker room leading (30-27). Then they stepped on the accelerator after the break to outscore the hosts 21-9 during the third quarter.
The Russian double act of Yulia Poluyanova and Svetlana Efimova did most of the offensive damage with 21 and 17 points as Russia went on to beat a tired looking Slovak Republic (68-51).
The return of Farhiya Abdi (left) took some of the pressure away from Amanda Zahui in restoring some balance to the Swedish attack.
Sweden started well and dominated the game for the first 12 minutes (19-7). But then they went to sleep allowing Serbia to reduce the deficit by the interval (25-29).
After the break Sweden, looking more focused, blew Serbia away with fast breaks and excellent perimeter shooting to go into the final quarter leading (47-30).
Serbia were not able to find a way back into the game despite the efforts of Snezana Colic with a total of 16 points. With this defeat they finish bottom of the group.
Sweden's (61-42) victory give them a chance of picking up a quarter-final place.
They are currently in third place with identical record to Slovenia. However a victory against the hosts in the final match will secure qualification.
If they lose and depending on the result of Slovenia's last game, the calculator may be required to determine which team is eliminated.
Spain 63-31 Slovenia
Slovak Republic 51-68 Russia
Sweden 61-42 Serbia
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Group F: Lithuania end the perfect record of France
The French players have been speaking all week about the fighting spirit and the heart of this team. All this was not enough to hold off a disciplined performance by Lithuania.
France did not help themselves with a high number of turnovers, 28 in total, and a (11-23) in the first quarter.
The French team used up a lot of energy as they chased after the score during the second quarter. They went into the interval trailing (28-31).
France huffed and puffed all through the second half and even went in front. But it was the performance of Santa Okockyte with 20 of her team's 38 points during the second half of the match that defeated them.
Her 29th point of the game put Lithuania in the lead for good with 3 1/2 minutes left to play in the game. France were unable to score again and repeat the Houdini acts of previous games.
With this victory Lithuania have also secured a spot in the last 8.
The Italians have won every game they have played in this tournament without much fuss. On this day it was the turn of Lucia Morsiani to lead the team in scoring with 17 points in the victory (81-51) against the Ukraine.
The Italians success so far has been on defense. They have not allowed in more than 54 points in any game.
They restricted a tired looking Alina Iagupova to just 13 points and had the game won by the end of the third quarter leading (73-40).
Turkey won on the opening day of this FIBA competition and have then been on the wrong end of the stick in the following three games.
The relief in the faces of the players was understandable as they held off Poland (68-64) in a tight finish. Turkey were led by Özge Kavurmacioglu (left) who scored 20 points.
Despite this defeat Poland is not out of the running for a place in the quarter-final.
Poland, Turkey and Ukraine can all still qualify for the quarter-final depending on the results of the final game.
Italy 81-51 Ukraine
Turkey 68-64 Poland
Lithuania 69-64 France
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Belgium and Hungary bounce back
The Belgian Cats had to wait until day five to come up with their best team performance.
Lut De Meyer led the team scoring with 21 points. Yet it was the team's control of the offensive boards that secured the victory (70-62) against the Czech Republic.
Hungary came from behind in the final quarter to edge out Latvia (70-66) in the last two minutes of the game.
All four teams have identical records with a win each.
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FIBA Europe U18 European Championship Women picture credits:
womensbasketball-in-france.com
FIBA Europe
Date created: 03 August 2010
