Poland, Great Britain rise to the occasion to complete Quarter-Finals lineup

DUBLIN (FIBA U18 Women's European Championship 2017, Division B) - Poland and Great Britain registered clinical wins on the last day of the Group Phase action in the FIBA U18 Women's European Championship 2017, Division B in Dublin to join six other teams in the Quarter-Finals.

A laudable defensive effort by Poland saw coach Roman Skrzecz's side hand the previously unscathed Portuguese team a 53-46 defeat to rise to leapfrog them at the top of the standings in Group A, with Karolina Matkowska leading the way with 14 points.

In spite of picking up their first loss in the tournament, Portugal still moved on to the next round as the second seed of the group, with Bulgaria claiming third place with a 3-2 record after topping Finland 91-87, while Luxembourg avoided a last-place finish with a 61-48 victory over the winless Estonia.

Great Britain also had Quarter-Finals berth on the line, but handled the situation with enviable poise, downing the Slovak Republic 86-64 in a winner-takes-all matchup in Group D.

Having established a double-digit lead already in the opening quarter, the British team cruised home with the win behind a 31-point, 7-rebound and 4-steal game by Holly Winterburn to secure passage to the next phase alongside group winners Ireland.

The tournament hosts closed out the Group Phase with a 77-57 victory over Ukraine to stay unbeaten, while the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had some fun at the expense of Moldova with a 124-47 scoreline.

Things went as expected in Group C with Romania and Israel punching their way to the Quarter-Finals. The undefeated Romanian side improved to a squeaky-clean 5-0 record and eliminated the Netherlands with a 62-50 victory, while Israel finished in the second position with a 4-1 mark after defeating Switzerland 73-42.

In spite of long being out of the race for Play-Off spots, Norway finished the preliminary stage of the competition on a positive note, edging out Georgia 69-61 for fourth place in the standings.

Meanwhile, Germany capped off their dominant play in Group B with a 78-61 victory over Belarus in a game between two undefeated and already qualified teams for superiority in the group table.

Nyara Sabally had a team-high 17 points for the winners, also adding 10 rebounds and 6 assists, while Luisa Geiselsoder chipped in with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Natallia Harbachova scored a game-high 18 points for Belarus.

Austria inscribed a 20-0 technical victory over Denmark to finish third, while Iceland claimed fourth place in Group B after blowing out Albania 117-34 in a one-sided display before the start of the Classification Games.

Quarter-Finals matchups:

Poland v Belarus Ireland v Israel Germany v Portugal Romania v Great Britain [/unordered]

FIBA