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Women’s Basketball World Cup: the Belgian Cats roll out and reassure themselves against Bosnia

It was under the gaze of the new world cycling champion Remco Evenepoel and the vice-champion of the little queen Lotte Kopecky that the Belgian Cats beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 85-55, in their 4th match in the World Cup of women’s basketball on Monday in Sydney. They were leading 37-22 at the break. This success reassures them after a lackluster performance, despite the victory on Saturday against Puerto Rico.

Hind Ben Abdelkader (18 pts, 4/7 to 3 pts and 3/4 to 2 pts in 18 minutes), Kyara Linskens (13 pts, 7 rebs) and Julie Vanloo (13 pts 3/7 to 3 pts) were the best directors on the Belgian side. The bad news is the calf injury suffered by Cats captain Emma Meesseman who did not play after the break. She should undergo an ultrasound, announced the RTBF.

If the qualification for the quarter-finals was no longer really in doubt, this victory, the third in four “Down Under” matches, allows Belgium to finish at the worst 3rd in group A. The Belgians will play for 2nd place on Tuesday against China (5h30 Belgian).

Facing the Bosnians (26th in the FIBA ​​ranking), who had lost their first three matches in Australia, but who never succeeded at the Cats, the Belgians took care of their defense, determined to prevent the opposing star Jonquel Jones to repeat his performance of Sarajevo (44 pts and 18 rebs) during the 87-81 defeat at the start of the year for the debut of coach Valéry Demory at the head of the Belgian selection. In fact, the original Bahamian was limited to 8 points and 8 rebounds.

After ten minutes, the scoreboard showed 17-12 for Belgium and Jones hadn’t scored a single point. The Bosnians had returned only 4 of their 16 shots. The gap could have been bigger with a little more skill from the Cats on offense. The second quarter started well as the Belgians made the break (26-16, 13th) despite Emma Meesseman still absent offensively (1/6 on shots). Four and a half minutes followed without the slightest Belgian point that their opponents could not take advantage of as the Belgian defense was concentrated (26-20, 17th). The Cats, more lively, joined the break at plus 15 (37-22) thanks to a 3rd award-winning shot from Julie Vanloo (13 pts at rest).

Nothing threatened the Belgian success in the last two periods. Bosnia, which had no more hope of qualification, did not insist and quickly found itself at minus 20 (47-27, in the 24th). Demory could rotate his workforce for the duel which promises to be delicate against the Chinese “the revelation of this World Cup”, according to Demory who had confided in RTBF. The Cats had the good taste to continue to apply and completed the 3rd quarter on the mark of 62-39. While things were understood, the Belgian substitutes were keen to finish well like Hind Ben Abdelkader, the game’s top scorer.


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