U19W Wold Championships : Russia meet USA in final

U19W Wold Championships : Russia meet USA in final

The penultimate day's play in Russia saw the hosts too strong for Australia and a dominant 2nd Quarter performance from the USA putting paid to Spain's hopes of an upset.

Although the Gems surprisingly won the battle of the boards versus their opponents 51-47, Russia took 38 pts in the paint to Australia's 22, with Maria Vadeeva once again their star performer, scoring 27 pts and grabbing 16 rebounds for an efficiency rating of 39. They also created better opportunities, compiling 21 assists to the young Australians' 8 and profited from Antipodean difficulties in taking care of the ball with 22 pts scored from turnovers. 

 

In the day's other semi-final Laura Quevedo (17 pts, 5 rebounds) and Angela Salvadores (16 pts, 8 rebounds, 6 assists) once again put in quality performances for Spain but Team USA were just too strong inside, taking 58 rebounds to the Iberian side's 36 and totalling 66 pts in the paint to the Spaniards' 24. They will hope to correct their 0-10 show from downtown in today's final though, as well as their under-par free-throw shooting with only 56% converted in this contest.

 

In the day's classification games, Marie-Michelle Milapie (17 pts, 8 rebounds) stood out in France's win against China and they will now play off for 5th place against Belgium, with Julie Allemand scoring 24 in their victory over Canada. A chance for Les Bleues to avenge their opening-day defeat against the Belgians perhaps ? All of the day's results were as follows with today's scheduled matches commencing at 10:00am local time ( - 1hr for CET, - 2 hrs for BST ).

 

Semi-Final Results

  • USA 80 - 65 Spain
  • Russia 76 - 57 Australia

13-16 Classification Games

  • Chinese Taipei 74 - 59 Egypt
  • Korea 63 - 57 Argentina

9-12 Classification Games

  • Brazil 60 - 49 Mali
  • Netherlands 90 - 60 Serbia

5-8 Classification Games

  • France 67 - 61 China
  • Belgium 70 - 64 Canada

 

Today's Games

  • Egypt v Argentina 10:00 (15/16)
  • Chinese Taipei v Korea 12:15 (13/14)
  • China v Canada 13:30 (7/8)
  • Mali v Serbia 14:30 (11/12)
  • France v Belgium 15:45 (5/6)
  • Brazil v Netherlands 16:45 (9/10)
  • Australia v Spain 18:00 (Bronze Medal Game)
  • Russia v USA 20:15 (Final)