TOULOUSE (FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) – Russia bowed out to China 68-59 in the first quarter-final played in front of a 400-strong crowd in Toulouse.

In a low key first quarter, China led 14-10 as both teams looked rusty following Thursday’s rest day.

Anna Arkhipova-von Kalmanovich’s team played solid defense, not allowing access to the basket for the Chinese whose shooting was uncharacteristically letting them down. 

However, Russia had offensive struggles of their own and their tight defense loosened up as they conceded seven unanswered points at the end of the second period to trail 35-26 at halftime.

China’s shooting did not improve much in the third while Russia’s did slightly, allowing them to cut the deficit to 47-40 at the end of the period.

The final quarter was a bit more lively and high-scoring. The Russians got within five on several occasions but that was as close as they got and China booked their place in the semi-finals.

Russia will play in the Saturday and Sunday's games to determine places 5-8.

Quotes

Wang Guizhi (China head coach): “We didn’t know a lot about the Russian team but we watched videos, we developed a good tactic and we particularly paid attention to defense and rebounds.”

Anna Arkhipova (Russia head coach): A quarter-final is usually a very difficult game. For us it was more difficult on psychological side today. During the game we lost a lot of rebounds, it was the main thing that made us lose. China had a very good balance between bench and players from the starting five. We, on the contrary, have a short bench.

FIBA/LOC