FIBA – Women’s Day 5 Group A Round-Up

BEIJING (Olympics) - FIBA Asia champions Korea hung on grimly to ward off a fourth quarter rally and eked out a 72-68 win over Latvia to clinch the fourth quarter-final berth from Group A in the Olympic women’s basketball competition on Sunday.

In other action, 2006 FIBA World Champions Australia beat EuroBasket 2007 winners Russia 75-55 and South American outfit Brazil ensured they didn’t draw a blank by upsetting EuroBasket 2007 bronze medalists Belarus 68-53. Despite the defeat there was no change in Belarus’ third-place finish in the group.

The Korea-Latvia game was a virtual knock-out encounter and had all the ingredients that go with such games.

Latvia led 22-20 at the end of the first quarter. Korea hit back in the next scoring as many as the rivals did in the first quarter, but containing them only to 13 for a seven-point lead going into the changing rooms.

A 10-2 run early in the third quarter, when captain Jung Sun-Min led from the front with five points – including a three-point play – gave Korea the edge in the game. An advantage they consolidated to a 16-point lead at the end of the third quarter. The 2000 Sydney Olympics semifinalists even enhanced it to 63-46 early in the fourth.

That’s when the encounter came alive, with Latvian captain Anete Jekabsone-Zogota finding a valiant supporter in her Dynamo Moscow clubmate Ieva Kublina.

Kublina poured in 13 of her game’s 18 during this period and Zogota hit a running jumper in the lane to bring down the deficit to 68-70, with 12 seconds left in the game.

In an anti-climax, Latvia fouled at this juncture and Lee Mi-Sun made no mistake with her two free-throws to clinch the game, and a last eight berth, for Korea.

Park Jung-Eun led the scoring for Korea with 17 points followed by Jung with 15 points.

“My players fought until the end and that was the key for the victory. I’m very happy with their performances,” Korea coach Jung Duk Hwa said.

“We expected a tough game. We were under a lot of pressure. Unlike the past two games, my players were in form and very confident going into the game.”

Zogota returned a game-high 22 points for Latvia.

“This has been a great experience for us because now we know what we have to do to play at this level,” Latvia coach Ainars Zvirgzdins said.


With American born Becky Hammon scoring 16 of her game-high 20 points, in the first half Russia put themselves 37-25 ahead at half-time against Australia.

But the Opals increased the intensity in their defense and outscored their opponents 30-10 in the third quarter. And in the final ten minutes, Jan Stirling’s team pressed home the advantage.

Australia, who had beaten Russia in the FIBA World Championship final two years ago, thus avoided a possible semifinal clash with Team USA.

Lauren Jackson and Belina Snell shared the scoring honors for the Aussies with 16 points each. But more importantly most of those points were scored in the second half –
Jackson poured in 12 and Snell 11.

“When you are 20 (actually 16) points down and suddenly look up there and you see your dream slipping away, something clicks in,” Jackson said.

“I feel emotional. We needed to win this game so bad,” the Seattle Storm power forward said almost crying.

“We cannot take anything away from Russia, they are a great team but for us, this was an important win.”

Hammon attributed her team’s failure in execution of plans for the defeat.

“Our defense collapsed in the second half. They are a very good team but they weren’t making their shots in the first half,” she said.

“We were beating them on the boards by half-time but when you are outrebounded by 15 or 20 boards it makes life difficult unless you are making every shot which we weren’t.”

Australia led only 25-24 in rebounds at the half-time, but by the time the game ended they had built a huge 53-36 advantage.

“If there is anything Australia are known for, it’s being fighters and being very competitive. We knew they weren’t going away,” Hammon said.

“Unfortunately, they got a lot of momentum in the first five minutes (of the third quarter) and never looked back,” she added.

Brazil had a point or two to prove in their final preliminary round game against Belarus.

For one, they sought revenge against a team that beat them in the quarter-finals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women in Madrid in June. And more importantly, they had to ensure they returned home at least with one win.

They achieved both their goals on Sunday.

Kelly Santos had 14 points, while Francielle Nascimento scored 10 and pulled down 10 rebounds for Brazil.

Yelena Leuchanka led Belarus with 10 points and seven rebounds. Natallia Anufryienka also scored 10 points and pulled down five boards.

Scores

Australia 75 (Belinda Snell 16, Lauren Jackson 16, Penny Taylor 12) bt Russia 55 (Becky Hammon 20, Svetlana Abrosimova 16). Quarterwise Scores: 15-19, 25-37, 55-47.

Korea 72 (Park Jung-Eun 17, Jung Sun-Min 15, Beon Yeon-Ha 12) bt Latvia 68 (Anete Jekabsone-Zogota 22, Ieva Kublina 18, Zane Tamane 11). Quarterwise Scores: 20-22, 42-35, 60-44.

Brazil 68 (Kelly Santos 14, Claudia Neves 11) bt Belarus 53 (Yelena Leuchanka 10, Natallia Anufryienka 10). Quarterwise Scores: 20-12, 39-26, 49-38.

FIBA