Czech Republic's Final Run Over Japan To Beijing

CZECH REPUBLIC 76 – JAPAN 64

Czechs  dominated the game during all the match. They began scoring a 7-2 run but Japan made a comeback and scored an 8-0 run leading to a time out by Jan Boborovski  with 5 minutes remaining and 7-10 in the score. Japan pulled her run to 12-0 to lead 14-7 with 2:32 remaining. After 5 minutes scoreless thanks to the great defensive display by Tomohide Utsumi’s team the Czech Republic scored again making a 7-2 in the last minutes to put themselves 16-21 at the end of the first

In the second the defense took the stage making the hard to execute the offenses as you can see in the global scoring of the quarter, 11-5 for the Czechs, who closed the gap to one point early in the second after scoring a 9-2 run which begin in the first but then both teams remained scoreless during three minutes. Yuko Oga scored then all five points from her team in the quarter, putting then in front 26-20 with four minutes remaining for the break.

The Czechs comeback with 3:30 remaining. Hana Machova sparked a 7-0 run from the charity stripe and Eva Viteckova completed the surge putting their team in front, 27-26, and never looking back in the game. No mattered how aggressive the Japanese defense was or how bad they were in shooting, Jan Boborovski’s girls never lost their composure

After the break they made an 8-2 run, capped again by Eva Viteckova from the perimeter who scored 13 points in the quarter, putting themselves 35-28 ahead, frustrating all the Japanese tries of making a comeback and keeping and advantage that went from 5 to 13 points during the rest of the quarter. Time in which both teams traded baskets to enter in the last ten minutes 50-41 for the Czechs.

Japan tried to comeback with a vengeance, increasing their aggressiveness in defense, but the Czech Republic kept their composure and took complete control of the game, scoring in the key moments to keep the game under control. Utsumi’s girls put into seven points, 61-54, but then Hana Machova sparked a 6-0 run (Once again capped by Viteckova) which killed the game definitely, making it 67-56 with four remaining for the end

The late Japanese efforts were in vain, the Czechs had taken complete control on the game and didn’t give a chance to Japan of stealing their spot in the Beijing Olympics. The final score was 76-64 for the Europeans.

Eva Viteckova was key and scored 26 points, also grabbing eight boards. Hana Machova lead her team perfectly one more time and scored 19 points. Jana Vesela scored 12 points and got 7 rebounds, and Petra Kulichova had 14 boards and scored 7 points

For Japan Yuko Oga scored 17 points, Rika Tanaka 13 and Noriko Koiso had 11 points and grabbed 6 boards