RIO DE JANEIRO (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Spain got the better of Serbia, 65-59, in a thrilling all-European affair at the Youth Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Appearing in the Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2008, Spain fought back from an early nine-point deficit and did enough over the final 12 minutes to hold off the EuroBasket Women 2015 champions, who were themselves making their debut in the competition.  

Turning Point: There was no shortage of twists and turns in this game, including down the stretch. Laia Palau weaved her way through the Serbian defense for a lay-up that put Spain up 62-55 with 1:24 remaining. Serbia cut the deficit to 62-59 on Jelena Milovanovic's transition basket with 19 seconds left. Laura Nicholls was fouled and hit the second of two free-throws to push the Spanish advantage up to 63-59. Sonja Petrovic missed a lay-up at the other end, resulting in Astou Ndour ensuring the win by scoring the final points on a breakaway. 

Stats Don't Lie: Some big-time scorers were noticeably absent. Alba Torrens, the second leading scorer at EuroBasket Women 2015, had just 7 points. Meanwhile, Ana Dabovic who led Serbia in scoring on last summer's European title run and was the tournament's MVP, had just 4 points, all of them coming on free-throws.

Game Hero: While Torrens had only 7 points, 6 of them came in the decisive fourth quarter. The 'supporting cast' of Anna Cruz (13 points and 11 rebounds), Palau (7 points and 5 assists), Astou Ndour (11 points and 12 rebounds) and Marta Xargay (15 points off the bench) deserves a ton of credit.

The Bottom Line: On their EuroBasket Women 2015 title run, Serbia did lose once - against Spain, in the Group Phase. Marina Maljkovic's charges will hope they've learned more lessons from this defeat and that they can then apply against 2015 FIBA Americas Women's champions Canada on Monday. As for Spain, they face a tall order in the shape of five-time defending Olympic gold medalists USA.

FIBA