Czechs into top 8 by thrashing New Zealand 90-59 in Olympics women's basketball
15/8/2008 17:00
The Czech Republic qualified for the quarterfinals today after easily
going past New Zealand 90-59 in the Olympic women's basketball
tournament.
Hana Machova, guard of the Czech Republic, led all scorers with
23 points, followed by New Zealand's guard Angela Marino, scoring 22.
"This
game was big for us and now we have qualified," said Czech center Ivana
Vecerova. "For us, this was the most important game of the tournament."
The
Tall Fern stopped short of reaching the top eight after the match-up.
The
Czechs scored inside paint and hit four of six three-pointer shootings in the
first quarter to take a 26-12 lead.
"They just came out and shot very good,
and we did nothing," said Jillian Harmon, New Zealand's forward. "We are very
disappointed on how we played today and some other matches."
"Our goal was to
qualify for the next round and we missed it," she said.
After tailing the
Czechs 44-31 at half-time, the New Zealanders were plagued by turnovers and had
very hard time to break the opponents' defence, scoring only seven points in the
third quarter, 65-38.
"They played very good defence on us and we had many
turnovers," said New Zealand's Angela Marino.
"Not to let them score in the
paint is one of our goals today," she said. "But we didn't listen to the coach
and we let them score over 50 points in the paint. It was really
disappointing."
The Czechs scored 12 points on the Tall Ferns' turnovers and
14 on fast break.
The Czechs, who placed fifth at Athens 2004, lost to the
United States and Spain and had one win over Mali before the game against the
New Zealanders.
The Tall Ferns have competed at the Olympic Games twice
before, in 2000 in Sydney and in 2004 in Athens but lost three matches in the
Olympics preliminary round.
The Czechs will meet China on Sunday when New
Zealand will encounter the United States.
"The game against China will be
important," said Hana Machova. "They are a strong team and get great fans in
Beijing. It's going to be tough."
"I know No. 8 (Miao Lijie of China). she
plays guard and forward," she added. "We'll play against each other and it will
be hard to face her on the court."
Xinhua
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