Another easy victory for Canada
Canada scored another easy victory at this year’s FIBA World Cup. This time Canada beat Japan 70-56. As things stand now, Canada will fight with Australia for the top spot in this group. The Japanese took a 5-0 lead and after that Canada took matters into their own hands. The Canadian women won the first quarter 20-12. By the end of the match, they routinely did their job and achieved another victory in the tournament. At one point, they had an advantage of more than 20 points. The Japanese women have little chance to continue the competition because they play against France and Australia in the next two rounds.
In the winning team, Bridget Carleton scored 16 points. Shay Colley added 11 points. On the other hand, no female basketball player had a double-digit performance. Monica Okoye was the most effective with 9 points. The Canadian women are playing great defense in this tournament, and they also had a dominant jump shot. If they do it again against Australia they will secure first place. With that, they will have an easier opponent and a good chance of reaching the semi-finals.
Australia defeated European champion
Australia justified its role as the favorite against Serbia, the current European champion, with a 69-54 victory. The host of the tournament had the advantage from the beginning to the end of the match. Australia led 36-28 at halftime. In the second half, we saw a turning point with the score 53-45. Serbia had an attack to further reduce the lead. A naturalized player, Yvonne Anderson tried to place the ball in the basket from a difficult position but failed. On the other side, a penalty arrived because the Australian women hit a three-pointer.
By the end of the match, Serbia was no longer able to reduce the deficit to single digits. In the winning team, Rebecca Allen scored 16 points with 5 rebounds. The aforementioned Yvonne Anderson also scored 16 points with 7 rebounds in the defeated team. Serbia will have a hard time avoiding fourth place and the USA in the quarterfinals. Australia will try to secure first place in the group in the duel against Canada.
Fantastic performance of Kone
After two convincing defeats, Mali managed to put up a worthy resistance to France. As in the previous match, the basketball players from Africa opened the match well. Mali even had a 21-17 lead after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the French women made a turnaround and reached a double-digit advantage 42-32. In the second half, France routinely did the job. The team which, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the weakest in the tournament can be satisfied with the final result. In the end, France won 74-59. In the defeated team, Sika Kone was again the best with 18 points and even 18 rebounds. When it comes to the winning team, Gabby Williams had a performance of 14 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.