EuroBasket Women 2015 round up (Second Round, day 1)

France remain the only unbeaten side in Group E but they are by no means perfect as they stumbled past Greece 51-42 in the second round game played in Debrecen.

The win though essentially puts France into the quarter-finals as results in the group went their way.

On the other hand, Greece need to beat the Czech Republic to stay in the tournament.

Greece’s mean defence was on show early as they held Les Bleues to only 15 points in the first quarter. On the down side, the Greeks only scored six points and shot a woeful 1-for-14 from the field in the opening period after France had raced into a 9-0 start.

But amid the offensive carnage, there was a lot to admire about the way they fought back to briefly lead in the third quarter, probing every possible weakness of their rivals with their zone press. It took a late 7-0 run by the 2013 Eurobasket Women runners up and a handful of vital offensive rebounds to finally break their unexpected resistance.

Sandrine Gruda and Paoline Salagnac both led France with 12 points.

In what was the game of the day, Czech Republic stunned Belarus 73-70 as a buzzer-beating three from Alena Hanusova handed the Czechs an unlikely win.

But despite the shock, the Czechs deserved it. They hung around throughout and took the game to the Belorussians, who had been so impressive in the first round.

Katerina Elhotova led the winners with 25 points, cancelling out Yelena Leuchanka’s 19-point, 12-rebound double-double for Belarus

Turkey were easy 61-41 victors over Montenegro in the other second round clash, as the Turks look to put have put the first round shakiness behind them.

Living by the fast break, Turkey raced to a 20-8 lead after the first quarter and never looked back.

There was a period where nine straight points gave Montenegro hope when they closed to 26-19 in the second quarter, but Nevriye Yilmaz and Lara Sanders came up big, sparking a 16-0 run over a six-minute spell in the third that was as good as their side has produced so far, with their twin towering presence in a zone defensive scheme also tough to get past.

Nevriye Yilmaz led the way for Turkey with 18 points.