The teams of Serbia and Spain qualified ahead of schedule for the quarterfinals of the basketball tournament among women at the Olympic Games in Paris, after recording second victories in group "A", BTA reported.
The Serbian women handled China unexpectedly easily with 81:59 (23:17, 22:22, 17:11, 19:9). In the first half, the two teams exchanged the lead several times, but our western neighbors still led by 45:39.
In the second 20 minutes, however, the semi-finalists from the last Olympics left no doubt about their superiority. Yvonne Anderson was the top scorer for the winners with 15 points, Masa Jankovic added 13 points, and Tina Krajsnik finished with a "double-double" of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
For China, which is last in the provisional group standings with two losses, Xiu Wang and Xu Han each scored 11 points.
In the other match, Spain recorded its second consecutive victory by one point after 63:62 over Puerto Rico.
The European runners-up escaped with two well-taken penalty kicks by Laura Hill in the final second of regulation time. Ten seconds earlier, Mia Hollingshead had given the lead to the Puerto Ricans with a successful shot from mid-range.
Despite the minimal success, Spain, like Serbia, already has two wins and cannot finish further than second place in the group. The two teams will contest the first position in a direct clash on August 3.
The top scorer for Spain was Megan Gustafsson with 18 points, who also grabbed 13 rebounds. Leonor Rodriguez added 17 more points.
Area Girantes scored 15 points for Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico and China have two losses each and only the winner of the match between them will retain chances for the quarterfinals.