France rout Mozambique 87-33 in the final preliminary round game of 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament for Women
With a chance of still making it into the knockout round of the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament for Women, however bleak it was, Mozambique took on the French Women in the last game of the preliminary round.
But, as it turned out after the first 10 minutes, it was more a matter of saving their grace rather than pulling an upset win for the team from Africa.
The French started off with a 7-0 run and after allowing 4 straight points to their opponents, they really pressed the trigger romping to an 87-33 win.
The European giants closed the first quarter with an 18-10 advantage. The scores were 22-12 early in the second when the French launched their first major assault, in the form of a 10-2 run to make it 32-14.
That however was only the beginning of the end to Mozambique’s Olympic dreams.
A Mozambique three pointer later, France scored 11 unanswered points and went into the break with a definitive 43-17 lead.
France outscored Mozambique 25-7 in the second quarter and then 24-3 in a tad more than the first nine minutes of the third to build a 67-20 lead. Nassira Traore made a jumper to make it 67-22, but Ndongue replied back with a deuce
to extend the French advantage to 69-22.
After two blowout quarters, some sanity was restored in the last 10 minutes of the game. The Africans got outscored by just seven in that frame and more importantly crossed into the double figure score for the first time on their
way to a massive 54 point loss.
The French charge was led by 17 points and 10 rebounds from Endéné Miyem. The centre shot 6 of 10 from the floor and also slipped in 5 of 6 from the free throw line. Isabelle Yacoubou had 12 points on a 4 of 5 shooting along with
5 boards and Sandrine Gruda finished the night with 10 points and 5 rebounds.
France shot 33 of 61 from the floor, which included 28-for-48 from the two point range and 5 of 13 from beyond it. They out-rebounded the Mozambique women 54-14 and also had 31 assists in comparison to just 2.
Mozambique got 14 of their 33 points from Traore. The second highest points coming from that roster were 5.
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