Russian women take silver in Europe
Published 20 June, 2009, 23:29
Russia’s women’s basketball team failed to defend its title at the Euro Championship. In the final, the Valery Tikhonenko women were beaten by 2001 champs, France.
After a more or less equal first quarter, the Russian team performance lost its polish in the second quarter. At the same time, team France continued producing two-pointers. All that resulted in team Russia’s being down 11 points going into halftime.
Things went even worse in the third quarter, during which France was up 19. But after a series of substitutions, team Russia suffered a sea change. They managed to significantly reduce the lag in the third quarter and came close to tying France in the fourth quarter. A minute before the final whistle, they were only four points down to France, but that was all they could do for the evening.
53-57 was the final score, meaning France grabbed the European gold, Russia took silver and Spain secured bronze.
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