Czech Republic outclass Argentina 68-54; 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament for Women
With their passage in the knockout stage of the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament for Women already confirmed, Czech Republic and Argentina took on each other in the third game of the day 3 in what was Group B fixture.
The contest turned out to be a pretty one sided affair with the Europeans dominating right from the start to carve out a 68-54 win.
The game was tied at 2 in the early stages, and that was the closest Argentina got to the Czechs all night long. What followed was an 11 point unanswered run and the Europeans were off and running. They continued to dominate and
were leading at 18-5, before the South Americans pulled back the deficit to ten points at 19-9.
Argentina had a better second quarter in which they actually outscored the Czech 13-11. They started off with a 9-6 advantage and closed the half at 22-30.
The mini comeback by the Argentineans in the second frame woke a sleeping giant in the Czechs. They started the second half with a 13-2 period and outscored the opponents 11-7 rest of the way through, entering the last 10 minutes
with a 54-31 lead. The third quarter onslaught pretty much sealed the fate of the game and although the Argentineans outscored the Czechs 23-14 in the final 10 minutes the outcome of the game was never in doubt.
Four Czech players made it to double scoring figures on the night with Petra Kulichová leading the way. The reserve centre was huge in the game. Not only did she score a game high 16 points on an 8 of 14 shooting from the floor,
she also grabbed 20 rebounds and accounted for 4 blocks.
Her rebound tally was eight short of the total boards Argentineans were able to bring down. Alena Hanusová had 13 points; Hana Horakova tallied 11 while Katerina Elhotova added 10.
For the Argentineans, point guard Melisa Gretter had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals while Paula Reggiardo chipped in with 12 points. No other South American player managed to score more than 7 points and the Argentines were
really let down by their 17 of 61 effort from the field.
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