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Saturday games are over in FIBA Women’s EuroBasket. Here’s what happened.
Sweden vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina finals core: Sweden misses out on World Cup berth in 82-63 loss
Connecticut Sun center Jonquel Jones scored 34 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in a World Cup classification match for Bosnia & Herzegovina, who will have a chance to go into next year’s tournament.
There were five lead changes in this game, but they happened in the opening minutes before the Bosnians took over and never looked back. Sweden just didn’t have an answer for Jones.
Elin Eldibrink led the Swedish with 14 points, and Mystics signee Klara Lundquist continued to struggle shooting the basketball as she had only 2 points on 1-of-6 shooting. I’ll admit that it wasn’t fun watching her in this tournament.
Belgium vs. Serbia final score: Meesseman limited in 74-73 loss
The good news for the Belgium women’s national basketball team is that they will go to the World Cup qualifiers next year. The bad news is that they couldn’t beat the defending Olympic silver medalists.
The first half was a seesaw affair with Cats giving Serbia an early double digit lead though they finished with a 36-32 lead thanks to Indiana Fever guard Julie Allemand scoring 13 of her 18 points in the first half alone to lead the Belgians. Emma Meesseman in the other hand was left scoreless in the first 20 minutes. She ended up scoring 8 points and shot 4-of-12 from the field.
Serbia was able to get a small lead in the second half and maintained it to the end. The last minute of the game was a free throw shooting party for both sides as Belgium looked to extend the game while Serbia tried to keep them from shooting a three. That said, Kim Mestdagh made a three with one second left in the game, and she had 11 points tonight.
For Serbia, Sonia Vasic led their scorers with 16 points.
The Belgians finish their EuroBasket performance tomorrow with a 12 p.m. ET game against Belarus for the bronze medal. If Belgium wins it, this will be their second in national history. Belarus is also going for their second bronze medal in national history, having won it in 2007.
France will play Serbia for the Gold Medal game at 3 p.m. ET. France has made five consecutive EuroBasket finals and will look to win their first Gold Medal since 2009. Serbia will be looking to win their first gold medal in history.