TOULOUSE (FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) – Belgium overcame a double-digit deficit to beat Spain by the slimmest of margins, 55-54, in a re-match of last year’s U16 European Championship final.

The Belgians got off to a very slow start but finished strong, outscoring their opponents 20-7 in the final frame to steal the game from under their nose.

Spain were on the attack from the get-go, with Sylvia Marcelo helping them to an early 11-2 lead.

A 19-11 first quarter lead stretched to a 36-26 advantage at halftime, a score that did not reflect the energy expended by both teams.

The Spaniards stayed very much in control after the break and bumped their lead to 47-35 heading into the final frame.

However that is Daniel Goethals’s girls got things right, holding their high-scoring foes to just seven points and taking confidence from their defensive effort to get things right at the other end.

They were within 47-44 with six minutes left to play and took the lead for the first time, 53-51, on Julie Vanloo’s basket in the lane with under a minute left to play and she then made a pair of free-throws with 20 seconds remaining.

Vanloo finished with 16 points and Emma Meesseman added 16 to go along with eight rebounds.

Quotes

Daniel Goethals (Belgium head coach): Spain-Belgium is becoming a classic year after year. Last year we faced them twice. Each time, it was very close. Both team have amazing competitors. In this game, we succeeded in turning the game around and coming out with the win, thanks to a fabulous second half. We kept faith and a motivation to come back in the game and finally won.

Victor Lapena (Spain head coach): This loss is very hard for us. We are glad of what we did during the first part of the game until Belgium found the means to stop our offense. Belgium had faith at the end of the game and it paid off.

FIBA/LOC