FIBA – Day One: Group A round-up

BEIJING (Olympics) - Belarussian meat producer Boris Tsiporin on Friday announced a “lifetime supply of sausages” for his country’s women’s basketball team for winning a medal at the Olympics. But that incentive proved inadequate as the EuroBasket bronze medalists stuttered to a 84-61 defeat to World Champions Australia on the opening day of the basketball competition at the Wukesong Arena on Saturday.

In other Group ‘A’ action, FIBA Asia Champions Korea sounded a couple of warnings to the fray by stretching Brazil into Overtime, then won the game 68-62 and World Championship silver medalists Russia deflated an enthusiastic Latvia 62-57.

With Kevin Rudd cheering his team from the stands – the Aussie Prime Minister even walked down after the game to join the celebrations of the facile win – the Opals needed only a couple of moments to settle into their rhythm and took their first and firm step towards a probable gold medal.

Yelena Leuchanka scored the first points of the game from close quarters and that was the only moment the Belarussians were ahead. Suzy Batkovic made her return from three injury-plagued years count, with two free throws followed by a success from the paint as the Jan Stirling-coached squad seized the initiative and never looked back.

Batkovic continued to celebrate her return with 14 points as captain Lauren Jackson showed she was in fine fettle to lead the Aussies’s quest for a maiden gold, returning a game-high 18 points. The duo also proved strong under the board. Batkovic pulled down 12 rebounds two more than her skipper as the FIBA World Championship MVP Penny Taylor joined the party with 12 points.

Coach Stirling didn’t speak too much of his wards’ opening win. “We are happy with our first game,” he said.

“This was a significant game for us because we had never played Belarus,” Stirling added.

“We are not in form,” Belarussian coach Anatoly Buyalsky averred.

“We lack rhythm. And we didn’t have a high spirit. I think we could have done much better,” he added.

Belarus surely have to do a lot better if they have any intentions of winning a free supply of sausages for their life time. They take on Latvia on Monday, while Australia play Brazil.

Brazil too seemed heading towards an ‘opening win’ when Korean point guard Choi Yoon-Ah and forward Beon Yeon-Ha took charge of the proceedings to stretch the game beyond the forty minutes. And once the Overtime began, Yeon-Ha played like a woman possessed striking down seven of the 13 points her side scored. Brazil who were one shot away – at 55-55 and 21 seconds left in the game – from a win during regulation time, were left ruing Micaelo Jacintho’s fumble at the rim.

Brazil coach Paulo Bassul blamed his team’s conservative approach for the defeat. “We were too focused on defense rather than on the offense,” he said.

Korea coach Jung Duk Hwa attributed his team’s success to their defense play. “We stepped up the zone defense in the fourth quarter and the overtime. It was a tough game and a good game to win,” he said.

Korea now take on Russia on Monday.

Russia started off their quest for a maiden Olympic gold overcoming Latvia. Russia who had beaten the same opponents 67-36 in the semifinals en route to their EuroBasket 2007 triumph, found the Latvians a tougher nut to crack.

In a game where fortunes swung like the proverbial pendulum, Russia tightened their grip in the fourth quarter – outscoring the Baltic debutants 21-9 – to bag their opening win.

Liene Jansone had a fruitful day for herself top scoring the game with 24 points and even managed to take Latvia ahead at the end of the second and third quarters, but Tatiana Tatiana Shchegoleva and Ilona Korstin combined together to champion the Russian cause.

Korstin’s CSKA Moscow teammate American Rebecca Hammon, who raised quite a stir for opting to play for Russia, had a mixed day in office. The former New York Liberty guard scored 11 points, but also turned over four times.

“We made some mistakes with help defense. We wanted to start well and I’m happy that we found this team spirit,” Korstin said.

“It’s very important when you play together and as a team.”

“It was a very good first game for us,” she added.

“It’s only the first game,” quipped Jansone. “We lost, but we played hard,” the Hondarribia-Irun player said as her coach Ainars Zvirgzdins proferred a more analytical approach.

“We just didn’t shoot very well but we’ll learn from this,” he said adding: “This was Latvia’s first game in the Olympics and it’s a different level.”

How much Latvia have learnt will be tested against Belarus on Monday.

Scores

Australia 83 (Lauren Jackson 18, Suzy Batkovic 14, Penny Taylor 12, Laura Summerton 12) bt Belarus 64 (Yelena Leuchanka 13, Tatyana Troina 13, Katsiaryna Snytsina 11). Quarterwise scores: 19-12, 44-28, 65-50.

Korea 68 (Beon Yeon-Ha 19, Choi Yoon-Ah 19, Kim Jung-Eun 12) bt Brazil 62 (Kelly Santos 13). Quarterwise scores: 11-14, 26-28, 41-43, 55-55.

Russia 62 (Tatiana Shchegoleva 13, Ilona Korstin 13, Rebecca Hammon 11) bt Latvia 57 (Liene Jansone 24). Quarterwise scores: 14-7, 29-31, 41-48.

FIBA