Game Report, China vs France, 66-64 - Eight-Finals

BARUERI (FIBA World Championship for Women) - The good news for France after their narrow defeat to China on Monday is they have still reached the quarter-finals.

The bad news is that Australia are waiting.

"Now we face Australia and I am having a glass of whisky with Tom Maher to discuss Australia," said jovial France boss Alain Jardel of China’s coach.

"Being an Australian and having directed the team for so long, he (Maher) must be able to give me some tips about the team (laughs)."

France are a tough team to figure out.

They began the tournament by upsetting the Czech Republic and they also defeated Russia.
Yet they suffered defeats to Cuba and China, teams that have not progressed to the last eight.

China had a chance to leapfrog France into fourth place and qualify for the quarter-finals, but they had to beat them by 15 points or more.

Maher’s team trailed 32-30 at half-time but outscored the French 19-11 in the third quarter to make for an exciting finish.

Jardel’s players did enough to finish the job, however.

Lijie Miao had a strong game for the Chinese with 23 points

"We knew that 15 points was our margin and we tried everything we could," said Maher, who was nevertheless encouraged by his team’s efforts in Brazil.

"I think we did a good job. I think we have to be happy that we can play teams like France, Spain, Cuba.

"Our team made big progress in these past weeks.

"These players needed to have this experience, to play under that kind of pressure.

"They had never been in that position before. These players proved to be very mature and I congratulate them for that."

Emile Gomis had 14 points for France.

18.09.2006 Boxscores

Lithuania vs Spain: 55-75
Canada vs Brazil: 41-82
Cuba vs Russia: 81-96
Australia vs Argentina: 83-49
France vs China: 64-66
Czech Republic vs USA: 50-63

By PA Sport