Day 4: Joyous Opals and Serbia join France in QF's; China set new record for assists

SYDNEY (Australia) - It was a dramatic penultimate day of the Group Phase at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup as Australia, France, Serbia and Belgium made the Quarter-Finals, while China hit a high.

Opals win takes them into last 8 with Serbia.

The Sydney Superdome was bouncing on Monday night as host nation Australia made it into the Quarter-Finals after winning a super and entertaining game 75-72 against the previously unbeaten Canada.

 

A near triple-double from Steph Talbot of 11 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists was hugely important, but center Ezi Magbegor chose a good time to produce her best so far. She finished with a brilliant 16 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocked shots - the highest by any baller in the tournament so far. The result was also a good outcome for Serbia who also booked their spot, having beaten Mali earlier in the day.

Pass masters China set new record high

China came to play ultimate team basketball on Monday night when they destroyed Puerto Rico 95-60 with some amazing plays. They handed out a jaw-dropping All-Time Women's World Cup record 41 assists for 41 field-goals made to suggest they are intent on chasing down one of the top two spots in Group A.Yuan Li led with 9 assists, while Siyu Wang handed out 8 dimes as they set a new All-Time record.

Last Eight For Les Bleues as Japan miss out

France are celebrating making the Quarter-Finals after they completed an impressive 67-53 success against Japan, who's participation in the tournament beyond the group phase is now over. Iliana Rupert came up big with a nice double-double for France with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

USA's scoring frenzy sees records tumble

USA posted a landmark day as they set a new All-Time record for the most points in a game after beating Korea 145-69. Brionna Jones and A'Ja Wilson were unstoppable and went for 24 and 20 points respectively, making a combined and mind-blowing 22 of 25 from the field.

Quarter-Finals bound Cats gunning for a 2018 repeat!

Four years after they debuted in Tenerife and made a run to the Semi-Finals, Belgium find themselves in the last eight again. Their 85-55 success against Bosnia and Herzegovina took them into the Quarter-Finals and helped them gain sweet revenge for a pair of 2021 losses to their European rivals. Hind Ben Abdelkader brought the noise with 18 points after a smart perimeter shooting display, while center Kyara Linskens continued her rich vein of form with 13 points and 7 rebounds, while Julie Allemand distributed 9 assists. A big downside was an injury to team leader Emma Meesseman who left the game early and is ruled out of the rest of the tournament. 

Serbia knock on the Quarter-Finals door

A super display by Sasa Cado who fired six triples fuelled an 81-68 win for Serbia against Mali as they improved to 2-2 to keep their hopes of advancing to the Quarter-Finals alive. Tina Krajisnik did the business under the basket with a powerful double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds. The loss means that Mali have had their feint hopes of qualifying extinguished. 

FIBA