France down Korea 80-63 to seal a spot in the 2012 London Olympics - 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women
Sandrine Gruda hammered a game high 19 points on an 8 of 13 shooting and Isabelle Yacoubou notched up a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds as France blew past Korea 80-63 in the last quarterfinal of the 2012 FIBA Olympic
Qualifying Tournament for Women on Friday night.
The win means an automatic spot for the French women in the 2012 London Olympics while the Koreans will now to be the best of the four losing quarterfinalist to book their spot.
The French side was simply awesome from the floor, mustering up a conversion rate of 55 percent, which included a 31 of 51 effort from the two point range. They out-rebounded the Koreans 42-10 and also made 21 assists, 8 more than
what the Asian side managed to dish out.
The Koreans put in a strong performance in the first 10 minutes and were actually leading by a point at its end, but an emphatic French response in the second and third stanza’s ensured an easy win. There was not even a single
player on the French roster, who did not get her name on the score board. Endéné Miyem was their third leading scorer with 10 points.
Korea were paced by 17 points and 6 rebounds by Jung Ja Sin while Yeon Ba Heon managed 15. They had a solid start to the game and were leading by 6-2 after the first two minutes and 9-4 with 6:40 to go in the frame. The Asians
were in the groove early and stretched their advantage to 20-14 deep into the piece, before the French responded with five consecutive points to make it 19-20.
After a good start to the game, the Koreans completely lost the plot in the next 20 minutes of plays, which saw them being bulldozed by a combined tally of 41-22. They entered the last quarter trailing by 60-42 and from there on
it was always going to be an uphill battle against a physical team like France.
The Koreans however still have a chance to qualify for the prestigious spot in the Olympics. Korea will meet their regional rivals Japan in the first playoffs game tomorrow and if they manage to win that, they will have to face
the winners of the Canada versus Argentina game on Sunday.
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