Gameday 1 Top Performers: Vasic, Meesseman, Vadeeva, Babic, Pasic

 STRASBOURG / VALENCIA (France/Spain) - There were plenty of outstanding displays to choose from on an exciting first day of the FIBA Women's EuroBasket in Strasbourg and Valencia.

There was much to love as the action got underway with an overtime classic and huge upset, involving several top performers.

Sonja Vasic has already said that this will be her last edition of the tournament and she will be sorely missed after she produced one of the finest games of her illustrious career. She landed a mammoth efficiency valuation of 35 after guiding Serbia past Italy 86-81 in overtime with a stellar 27 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists.

There was also drama and a landmark day for Bosnia and Herzegovina, who announced their arrival back on the big stage after an absence of more than two decades by out-gunning Belgium 70-55. It was a big surprise and a famous success mostly founded on a brilliant shooting effort from Nikolina Babic. She went 9 0f 10 from the field for 23 points and also snapped up 4 precius steals.

The defeat was hard to take for Emma Meesseman, who did her best to save Belgium from the giantkilling by putting up a superb line of 24 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists.

Maria Vadeeva wants to rid herself of that losing feeling for Russia and helped to take a large stride towards that objective as she showed out in a nail-biting 73-69 triumph against Czech Republic. Her classy double-double of 27 points and 16 rebounds paced the victory.

Finally, Montenegro got off to a winning start by easing past Greece 70-55 thanks mainly to shooting guard Jovana Pasic, who continued her good form with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

FIBA