2012 FIBA Europe
U18 European Championship
Netherlands and Spain
pass into quarter-final

Russia handed France their first defeat (68-58) at the FIBA Europe U18 European Championship for Women Division A in Bucharest while the Netherlands and Spain have qualified for the quarter-final matches.

The battle for qualification in Group F will go into the final day with only the Netherlands sure of a place in the quarter-final.

The Netherlands needed overtime to get past Serbia (68-66). Kourtney Treffers recovered her scoring touch with 18 points while Laura Cornelius is almost back to her best with 13 rebounds (12 defensive) and 12 points. Sanja Mandic had 20 points for Serbia.

The Slovak Republic ran over Slovenia 22-9 in the final quarter to win (72-54) while Croatia beat Italy (75-66).

All these results mean that nobody has been eliminated from this group and the final day of qualifying round action should be passionate.

In the relegation round Belgium blew away Romania (84-44) while the Czech Republic beat Poland (63-52).

One quarter-final place remains in Group E

Russia scored the first 4 points of the game against France to dominate the first quarter (21-11). The Russians stayed in front until the 24th minute when Valeriane Ayayi tied the game with a three-pointer (35-35).

France were not able to take the lead despite drawing level for the second time at (37-37). However 5 points by Julia Gladkova put Russia back on track until the end of the third quarter (45-43).

France battled back in the final quarter and went in front for the first time (49-47) with eight minutes to play. Yet the Russians were not be denied and put together a 10-2 run to seal the victory.

While France have already qualified Russia must win their final group game against Sweden.

Sweden eliminated Greece (58-56) in a cliff hanger finish. Greece went in front with back to back three-pointers by Anna Stamolamprou and Vasiliki Tarla to lead (56-50) with two minutes to play.

The Swedish players did not panic while the Greek players lost their focus and allowed Sweden to scrape through to victory.

Spain booked their place in the quarter-final with a comfortable victory against Turkey (78-53) with 18 points from Maria Arrojo and Elena De Alfredo. Pelin Bilgic also finished on 18 points for Turkey.