Day four at the 2019 Women’s European Championship produced another day of exciting action.

In the opening game, Great Britain bounced back from their defeat against the Netherlands yesterday, with a professional 75-20 win over Turkey to get their European Championship campaign back on track.

The World silver medallists were clearly the stronger of the two sides right from the start and cruised through to half-time with quarter wins of 20-5 and 27-6, opening up a 36-point lead at the break.

The extensive advantage allowed Great Britain’s Head Coach Miles Thompson to play all his line-ups and give all twelve members of the squad valuable court-time. The changes did not disrupt the British team’s flow and the third quarter continued in much of the same vein as they continued to pile on the points, adding twenty-two more to lead by fifty-five points. Turkey continued to fight and kept the final quarter all square, 6-6, but Great Britain had already made sure of their semi-final spot and a place at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Robyn Love came off the bench to top score for Great Britain with 15 points. Turkey’s Asiye Emuce scored 6 to lead Turkey’s scorers. Full Statistics

Turkey versus Great Britain at the 2019 Women’s European Championship. Photo credit – Steffie Wunderl.

It was the battle of the top two in the second game of the day, as hosts Netherlands took on Germany.

In the opening quarter Germany struggled to find their scoring touch, shooting at 30% compared to the Netherlands’ 50%, giving the Dutch a 16-10 advantage at the end of the first. Germany fought back in the second to win it 12-13 and make it a five-point game at half-time, 28-23.

In the third, the Netherlands tried to stamp their authority on the game pushing out to a ten-point lead mid-way through the quarter. The Germans did not give up and after an inspiring quarter-time talk from Head Coach Martin Otto, Germany came out fighting and brought it back to a one-point game with two minutes remaining. Despite their best efforts winning the quarter 18-14, it wasn’t enough though and the Netherlands rode the storm out to win 55-51. Full Statistics

The Netherlands’ Bo Kramer led all scorers with 23 points. Kramer said after the game:

“Winning against Germany, I think yes it’s a great feeling. We fought as a team and for the team feeling, it is perfect. It was really really close and it’s not good for your heart rate, but I’m really proud of the team, that we came out on top.

“So now we are first in the group as well, which is good for the semi-finals and was our goal, we wanted to be first. We also knew it would be hard to get first, but we did it and I am really proud of the team.”

Spain versus France at the 2019 Women’s European Championship. Photo Credit – Steffie Wunderl

The final game of the day between Spain and France was likely to give the winner a huge advantage in taking the final spot in the top four of the preliminary standings, which would not only mean a place in the semi-finals, but also a ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Both teams seemed to be effected by the enormity of the game as nerves seemed to get the better of them in the opening five minutes, only making one basket each, but it was Spain’s talisman Vicky Perez who got Spain scoring and assisted them to a 12-7 lead at the end of quarter one.

Spain came out and stormed the second quarter, 16-5, and as their lead increased, France’s heads dropped, and their frustration started to boil over with Spain holding a sixteen-point advantage going into the second half.

Spain continued to control the game at the beginning of the third quarter extending their lead to twenty-two points, but a lack of discipline allowed France to stage a mini comeback pulling the score back to 38-20 with ten minutes to go. Spain steadied themselves in the fourth and sealed the victory with a 16-11 quarter score to take a big leap towards the semi-finals and qualification for Tokyo 2020, winning 54-31.

A double double of 22 points and 15 boards from Vicky Perez saw her lead all scorers, followed by France’s Solenn Thieurmel who made 12 points. Full Statistics