The favourites made it through to tonight's semi-finals (France play Holland at 19:30 CET and Spain take on Russia at 21:45 CET - both matches can be viewed on LiveBasketball.TV) but not without difficulties. Most notably Italy made a spirited 4th Quarter comeback to get within a point of France but the Blues held their nerve to set up a last four encounter with Holland. Yesterday's quarter-final and classification results were as follows.
Quarter-Finals
- France 61 - 55 Italy
MVP: Aby Gaye (Fra) 17 pts, 11 rebounds
Key Stat: France dominated rebounds 49 to 27.
- Holland 64 - 55 Slovak Republic
MVP: Emese Hof (Hol) 20 pts, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals.
Key Stat: The Dutch made 48.8% of their 2-pt shots, creating better openings than their opponents.
- Spain 71 - 52 Poland
MVP: Leticia Romero (Spa) 15 pts, 8 rebounds, 5 assists
Key Stat: Spain led rebounds 41 to 27, including 19 offensive boards that led to 21 2nd-chance points.
- Russia 68 - 56 Portugal
MVP: Elizaveta Komarova (Rus) 12 pts, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals
Key Stat: Russia made 7/13 triple attemps.
Classification Matches
- Germany 53 - 63 Serbia
MVP: Dragan Stankovic (Ser) 21 pts, 12 rebounds, 2 steals
Key Stat: Germany committed 28 turnovers and Serbia profited to the tune of 23 points.
- Hungary 59 - 68 Turkey
MVP: Hülya Coklar (Tur) 21 pts, 9 rebounds, 2 assists
Key Stat: Turkey shot 46.4% from the field, including 41.7% from 3-pt range.
- Belgium 77 - 51 Ukraine
MVP: Hind Ben Abdelkader (Bel) 26 pts, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
Key Stat: Belgium led Ukraine 22 to 8 in assists.
- Latvia 74 - 63 Czech Republic
MVP: Sindija Kudule (Lat) 16 pts, 8 rebounds, 2 assists
Key Stat: The Czechs committed 27 fouls and the Latvians converted 33 of 39 free-throws.