FIBA U17W - Australia beat Japan subs, Dutch see off Spain, Brazil grab first win

AMSTERDAM (2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) – Japan suffered their first defeat at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women, while hosts Netherlands beat Spain to take second place in Group B and Brazil picked up their first victory of the tournament.

Having already locked up the top spot in the group, Japan rested their starters and fell to Australia 100-66 in a game with no impact on the standings as Australia was also locked into fourth place.

Alanna Smith paced the Australians with 15 points, 9 blocks and 7 rebounds. Keely Froling added 13 points and her twin sister Alicia added a dozen.

Japan coach Shinichiro Hayashi played his starters for about five minutes in the first quarter and built a 15-0 lead before taking them out.

Risa Miki was the Asians’ leading scorer with 10 points.

The group’s only game of impact saw Netherlands beat Spain 56-37, which gives the Dutch second place in the group and Spain third.

This means the host nation could face the defending champions United States in Saturday's Semi-Final if both teams win their Quarter-Finals. The earliest the Spaniards could face the Americans is in Sunday’s Final.

“We wanted to win this game to keep our winning streak going,” Netherlands coach Meindert van Veen said of his team, who have now won their last three games.

“We owed it to our fans to come out and win this game, like we try to win every game.

“It was important to win this game because we want to make sure that we get more people to come to the games this weekend."

Lisanne de Jonge, Esther Fokke and Emese Hof all had 9 points as the Dutch top scorers, while Maria Navarro paced the Spanish with 8 points.

Afterwards, Spain coach Victor Lapena talked about his team lacking the focus to play on the day.

"The game yesterday (Spain's loss against Japan) took a lot out of us and we didn’t have a clear objective. It’s been very hard for the players who are only 17 years old. Now we have a clear objective on Friday (in the Quarter-Finals),” he said.

Lapena did not play starters Leticia Romero and Laura Quevedo while Maria Arrojo remained out injured.

“This morning Leticia Romeo was not able to move. Making her play today would be suicide,” he explained and added that Quevedo had hurt her thigh.

In the group’s first game of the day, Brazil finally got their first victory in Amsterdam beating Turkey 62-50 to move to 1-4 and take fifth place in the group.

Izabella Sangalli led the South Americans with 16 points while Vitoria Domingos had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Carla Lucchini scored 11 points. Monique Soares chipped in with 4 points, 13 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 blocks.

Turkey have still not won in dropping to 0-5 for last place in the group despite 17 points and 16 rebounds from Hülya Coklar while Büsra Akbas had 11 points, 4 steals and 3 rebounds.

FIBA