Women’s wheelchair basketball semi-finals set at Euros

Germany, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands will all fight for the women’s European crown. 05 Jul 2013

Germany women's wheelchair basketball team are the defending Paralympic champions.

ⒸUli Gasper

By IPC

“We have to concentrate on tomorrow, on the semi-final. This is an entirely different match and that is why we have partly accelerated in the offense not to lose concentration. The hardest thing for us today was not to lose the rhythm.”

Paralympic and European champions Germany will face Great Britain and France will challenge the Netherlands in Friday’s (5 July) semi-final round of action at the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball European Championships in Frankfurt, Germany.

All four teams won their quarter-final matchups to move on in the tournament.

Germany 93, Italy 26

German head coach Holger Glinicki helped his team confirm their position as the favourite to win the title on the women’s side with a dominating victory over the Italians.

Mareike Adermann scored 26 points for Germany, as Annika Zeyen added 16 and Gesche Schunemann chipped in 14. Franca Borin led Italy with 12 points.

“The quarter-final was as easy as expected,” Glinicki said. “We have to concentrate on tomorrow, on the semi-final. This is an entirely different match and that is why we have partly accelerated in the offense not to lose concentration. The hardest thing for us today was not to lose the rhythm.”

Netherlands 70, Israel 27

The Dutch women stayed undefeated at the Championships, rolling into the semi-finals behind Inge Huitzing’s 22 points.

The Israelis could not keep up with the Dutch’s full-court press. Moran Samuel led the Israeli effort with 11 points.

France 72, Turkey 46

France gained a clear lead in the first half and never looked back thanks to their top defensive effort. Now, the French will face and undefeated squad from the Netherlands in the semi-finals.

“We played well, made less mistakes than the Turkish team and it was within the most important match of the tournament for the qualification for the World Championships” said France’s Blandine Belz.

Great Britain 55, Spain 32

Following a first half full of turnovers for both teams, the British woke up in the final two quarters to break out with a big lead.

Helen Freeman led Great Britain with 20 points, while Victoria Alonso Vilarino had 19 points for Spain.

“We started quite slowly in the game but really pleased how we kept with it and picked up our intensity in the second half and really showed up dominance in the second half,” said Great Britain’s Louise Sugden.

Women’s playoff games (5th-8th place)

Friday (5 July)

Italy-France, 12:15

Israel-Turkey, 16:45

Women’s semi-finals

Friday (5 July)

France-Netherlands, 11:45

Great Britain-Germany, 16:00

Men’s playoff games (9th-12th place)

Friday (5 July)

Switzerland-Israel, 9:30

Belgium-France, 10:00