Day One U18 women Division B championship

The 2008 U18 European Championship Women Division B tipped off yesterday in Skopje, Macedonia. 20 nations are participating in this year’s edition with newcomers Switzerland and the hosts, Macedonia.

In Group A newly relegated Germany took on Switzerland and won comfortably (63-35). In the second game of this group Greece overpowered Luxembourg (72-49). Luxembourg - without Lisy Hetting, their influential point guard, who had a shoulder operation yesterday - may have lost their point guard Lynn Schreiner with a suspected sprained ankle.
In Group B Macedonia left it late to beat Slovenia (74-73) in the final game of the day 1. They were led by an impressive Ana Tanturovska who shot 9-of-14 from the field including 4 three-pointers in her game-high 34 points. Earlier in the day Estonia outpaced Israel (64-58).

In Group C Denmark ran Bosnia close in the early stages of the game before falling away to lose (58-72). Matea Tavic led the scoring for Bosnia with 25 points. In the other group match Hungary’s suffocating defensive qualities during the second and third period was too much for Finland to handle as they won (77-62). Réka Balint led the Hungarians scoring with 18 points.

In Group D Latvia overpowered Scotland (118-43) allowing Martins Zibarts to turn his bench and conserve energy for his players with Liene Priede leading the Latvian scoring with 16 points and Anete Steinberga pulling down 10 board.
Then in the following group match Belgium showed no mercy as they hit 5 from 7 from beyond the arc in the first period to take control of the game against England and went on to win (100-68) with five players in double digits. Jana Raman led all scoring with 22 points. The Belgium coach, Arvid Diels, commented after the game that he was happy to get the game over with a win as his team was under pressure after winning all their preparation games. He is hoping that his team will make the semi-finals.