Queralt Casas defeats Greece, and Spain goes directly to the Eurobasket quarterfinals (76-60)

Aware that defeat would eliminate them from the Eurobasket, Spain overcame Greece on the last day of the first stage, with more brilliance in the first half and more suffering, but the brilliant Queralto Casas in the second, to achieve a victory that allows them to finish first in Group A and directly to advance to the quarterfinals, without going through the round of 16.

The match started boldly and successfully in the attack of both teams. Points from Pinelopa Pavlopoulou, who added nine of the first fourteen for her side, allowed Greece to offset Spain’s dominance inside, with Raquel Carrera as the stiletto. When it looked like Miguel Méndez’s men would break through with their choral play, Mariella Fasoula and Spanou seemed to keep the balance (20-18, m.10).

In the first game of the second quarter, María Conde’s shoulder popped out, so she didn’t play anymore and interrupted the coach’s usual rotation. But the goals of Cristina Ouviña, with almost nine points in a row, and Leo Rodríguez embellished the Spanish women’s defensive improvement, and Queralt Casas and Raquel Carrera made it difficult for any rival action (33-20, m.16).

Realizing that the game could be lost forever, Greece first tried to stop the Spanish escalation, and then to reduce the deficit and succeeded (35-27, m.20).

As happened against Montenegro, Spain came back asleep after the break and Méndez had to call for an early time-out to try and redirect the scenario that Tsineke had derailed with his shots.

The appearance of Carrera in both baskets and several actions by the daring Queralto Casas allowed the most difficult minutes to pass without Greece being able to equalize, although on several occasions it came close to two points (55-49, m.30).

The bad moment seemed to have passed, but Spain did not get going and Casas had to reappear with two shots from long range to give him the protection he needed so that the risk of elimination did not overtake the team in the final stretch and allowed him to finish the match peacefully, which again contributed by the ubiquitous Carrera and allowed Lola Pendande to make her tournament debut.

Technical document:

76.- Spain (20+15+20+21): Cazorla (8), Casas (16), Torrens (7), Gil (9), Carrera (14) – five players – Conde (2), Domínguez (1), Ginzo (4), Ouviña (12), Rodríguez ( 3) and the pendant (-).

60.- Greece (18+9+22+11): Pavlopoulou (13), Stamalamprou (1), Christinaki (2), Spanou (14), Fasoula (10) – starting five – Alexandri (3), Bosgana (2), Diela (-), Karlafti (-), Sotiriou ( 8), Stamati (-) and Tsineke (7).

Judges: Gyorgyi (ROM), Proc (POL) and Gracin (CRO). There is no one eliminated.

Incidents: match corresponding to the third day of the opening phase of Eurobasket 2023 played in Tel Aviv Arena in Israel in front of about a hundred spectators