Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2008-08-16 01:17:17

(BEIJING, August 15) — Losses suffered by Brazil, Mali and New Zealand on Friday, August 15 ensure these teams will not make it to the quarterfinal round of the Olympic Women’s Basketball tournament.

Group A

The group A heartbreaker game of the day was Brazil’s 74-64 loss to Russia. The match stayed neck-and-neck until Russia managed to pull ahead at the end of the final quarter. This buries World No. 4 Brazil’s quarterfinal dreams. “We lost some players, others got injured and we were in the toughest group,” says Brazilian coach Paulo Bassuls.

“We have been close in all of our matches but couldn’t finish them they way we wanted. We have four years to give these players the responsibility of being the leaders. They will become the leaders if they play international games,” Bassuls predicts.

The good news in this group goes to Belarus, who had never even played in a EuroBasket and now has earned itself a quarterfinal berth by beating the Republic of Korea 63-53. The ROK relied too heavily on outside shooting on a night where the buckets just weren’t dropping for the Asian champions.

Meanwhile, the world champion Australians stepped up their defense in the third quarter to capture a 96-73 win over Latvia, their fourth in a row. Latvia, meanwhile, is left with a 1-3 record and must win against the Republic of Korea on August 17 to have a quarterfinal shot. Lauren Jackson made five of nine shots from behind the arc and scored a tournament-high 30 points for the Opals.

Group B

By beating Mali 69-48, China made it to the Olympic quarterfinals for the first time in 16 years and ensured that Mali will not reach the next round. China’s success was mainly due to captain Miao Lijie, who scored 25 points including five three pointers. Mali played again without captain Hamchetou Maiga who sprained her ankle. Mali has made quite an impression with their rebounding in this Olympics. They won that battle against China, 50-41, with Djenebou Sissoko pulling down an impressive 19, the highest amount for a single game in this competition.

Just like China did to Mali, the Czech Republic crushed New Zealand’s hopes for a quarterfinal appearance. Gambrinus Brno duo Hana Machova and Eva Viteckova combined for 44 points to lead the Czechs to a big 90-59 victory.

Spain managed to trail only 39-34 after the first two periods of its match against the defending Olympic champion United States, but ultimately rolled to a 93-55 defeat. After playing a close game like it was looking for an upset, Spain failed to follow up on its first half performance and scored just 21 points in the last two quarters. Tina Thompson led the United States to pull away with 12 points in the second half, 17 total.