France Moves On With Win Over Serbia

Millica Dabovic caused France difficulties early on as her in-your-face style troubled France when her team took an early lead (14-7) midway through the first quarter. France forced to run after the score, leaving the back door open for their opponents to exploit. Even when the backdoor was closed Serbia found a way to get the ball to Ivana Grubor who profited from some unselfish work of Sonja Petrovic to hit the first 3-pointer of the match (21-12). Yet France did not panic and slowly the deficit came down.

Sandra Le Drean scored twice and with Emilie Gomis' fast-break-counter-attack-lay ups made it a 3-point game. Millica Dabovic still had the last say of the period as she made a pair from the charity stripe for Serbia to lead (23-18) at the end of the first period.

At the start of the second quarter Grubor was left open again and put away another trey to the annoyance of Jacques Commères. Maybe his reaction was needed to spear France into offensive action as they went on to hit 11 unanswered points to take the lead (29-25) for the firs time in the game. Jovica Antonic, the Serbian head coach and master technician, needed a time-out to calm his players. It worked as his team tied the game on the next two plays. Sandrine Gruda restored the lead for France, before she was blocked by Monika Veselovski. Afterwards Ana Perovic tied the game once more after she was allowed to balk in behind the defence for a simple lay-up (31-31). The officials spoilt the flow of the game a bit with some strange calls in a hard finish to the end of the quarter with most of the points for both sides coming from the charity stripes. France finished with a 6:0 run before going to the locker room leading (39-34).

The first 6 points of the third period came from Serbia but lost their rhythm by a Edwinge Lawson-Wade steal and lay-up to finish. The teams traded baskets (47-42) with France maintaining the advantage although the game had become niggley due to some poor officiating. Audrey Sauret-Gillespie and Miljana Musovic clashed heads in a chase for the ball which split Audrey forehead open. Following this incident the game became even rougher. France was having trouble shooting the ball from outside the paint, so they went to work on penetrating the zone and finished the quarter on an 11:5 run to extend their lead (56-47).

Both sides had to work hard in the final period to score anything. France had a Sandrine Gruda on form today as she was in no mood to let anything get away from her, hence the advantage was maintained (66-55).France once again left the floor open and Petrovic hit a 3-pointer which once again annoyed Jacques commeres. Emily Gomis responded with a rear French mid-distance shot (68-58) with the game 20 seconds into money time.

France once again left the floor open and Petrovic hit a 3-pointer which once again annoyed Jacques commeres. Emily Gomis responded with a rear French mid-distance shot (68-58) with the game 20 seconds into money time. France went on to win (68-60) and will now play Latvia in the first game in the new PalaTricalle Arena in Chieti.

Sandrine Gruda scored 16 points and Emilie Gomis added 14 points for France while Ivana Grubor (3-of-3 from 3 point range) paced Serbia with 17 points . Ana Perovic adding 12 points and Marina Puskar chipping in 11 points also finished in double figures.