|
FIBA World Championship
|
On day four of the FIBA World Championship for Women, matches are played in two venues in the Czech Republic.Group E: Australia sail past Greece
Australia have one leg in the quarter-final
Australia started the match against Greece with Liz Cambage (left in Green), Kristie Harrower, Lauren Jackson, Belinda Snell and Penny Taylor and more or less killed the match as a contest after just four minutes leading (16-2).Carrie Graf, the Australian coach started to rotate by the end of the first quarter to give all 12 players time on the court.
With no points coming from Evanthia Maltsi and Sylviana Kaltsidou in foul problem, Greece still managed to match Australia for the remaining of the first quarter (15-27).
Australia reverted back to the starting five at the start of the second quarter to go further ahead with just over 15 minutes played (42-18). By the interval their advantage was (56-24).
Greece lacked the height to deal with Jackson and Cambage and fell further behind by the end of the third quarter (37-72).
The game fizzled out and the Greek head coach gave his bench players a run during the last three minutes.
Australia won the match (93-54) with Jackson and Cambage scoring 20 points each. Jackson also collected 10 rebounds.
Taylor added 10 points, while for Greece Kaltsidou and Olga Chatzinikolaou both finished on 10 points. On a sad note: Nikole Soulis had to leave the game after hurting her shoulder.
France have beaten Belarus (58-48) despite only going 1-of-10 from beyond the arc. Here you can read our full game report.
Belarus hit 9 three-pointers but conceded 14 points from the end of the third quarter until midway through the final quarter, which resulted in them losing the game.
Céline Dumerc was the player of the match for France with 13 points, 5 assists and 6 steals.
In the final game of the evening, once again the USA had a slow start allowing Canada to push ahead (6-3) with three minutes played. They extended this advantage to (11-5) midway through the quarter.
Angel McCoughtry's (left) introduction kick-started her side into action. Both teams were soon level with back to back scores from her.
The USA continued scoring with Tina Charles and Lindsay Whalen (17-11) to complete a 12-0 run.
Janelle Bekkering ended the sequence with a trey for Canada. But it was the Connecticut connection of Maya Moore and Charles that finished the scoring for the USA to edge the first quarter (19-14).
The USA dominated the second quarter and brought to an end the suspense as they headed into the looker room leading (47-25).
Whalen (right) led the USA with 16 points as her side cruised to victory (87-46).
Group results:
Greece 54-93 Australia
France 58-48 Belarus
USA 87-46 Canada
Return to the FIBA World Championship Index index
Group F: Spain is undefeated
Spain remain unbeaten at the FIBA World Championship for Women after beating Japan (86-59).
Spain did most of the damage during the first 20 minutes and led (50-27) going into the interval.
Japan did not give up to edge the third quarter. Yet Spain were too strong and regained control during the final quarter. Once again Sancho Lyttle (right) was impressive with 29 points, 11 rebounds in just 23 minutes.
In the other group game, the Czech Republic beat Korea (96-65).
Eva Vitecková (left) was the match winner for the hosts with a game high 27 points. She hit 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc in the 27 minutes she was on the court.
Korea had the better start to the match and led (12-9) with just under five minutes left to play in the first quarter.
Vitecková tied the game with a trey. Then it became one way traffic for 10 minutes in favour of the hosting nation.
The Czech Republic outscored Korea 30-8, which helped them in establishing a lead of 16 points going into the interval (49-33).
Korea took full advantage of some careless play by their opponents to reduce the deficit to 13 points early in the third quarter.
This was as close as they got because the hosts recovered. Jana Vesela and Vitecková scored 4 points each during an 8-0 run that put the Czech Republic in control for good.
Russia are the fourth team to stay perfect after beating Brazil (76-53).
Ilona Korstin explained after the match that the game was not their best one of the tournament but the victory was important.
Korstin and Olga Arteshin led the scoring for Russia with 11 points each.
Group results:
Japan 59-86 Spain
Czech Republic 95-65 Korea
Russia 76-53 Brazil
Return to the FIBA World Championship Index index
Return to FIBA World Championship page
GO Back to the top of the page
FIBA World Championship picture credit:
womensbasketball-in-france.comFIBA.com
Date created: 27 September 2010
