The women’s basketball team of France prevailed extremely dramatically over Spain with 67:64 (21:16, 15:14, 19:18, 12:16). The team of France led almost all the time of the silver medalists from Rio 2016, but things turned around in the last quarter when 2 minutes before the end Spain took the lead with 62:61.
In the last nervous seconds, the French scored 4 points from fouls and 2 points from play, which brought them valuable success. The Spaniards made several unsuccessful attempts to shoot and made a mistake in the passes.
Marine Johannes was the top scorer for France with 18 points, and Astou Ndour scored 16 points for Spain.
Another drama happened in the other quarterfinal, in which the Japanese team defeated Belgium with 86:85 (19:16, 22:26, 20:26, 25:17) and secured a place in the semifinals. Just 16 seconds before the end of the match, the Belgians led with 85:83 and were almost winners, but Rui Machida scored a three-pointer, which led to a complete turnaround in the late drama. With the siren, Kim Mestdagh from Belgium missed a shot and the chance to place her team in the Top 4.
The top scorer for Japan was Yuki Miyazawa, who scored 21 points and Maki Takada added 19 points. Himawari Akaho scored 12 points and made 7 rebounds.
Emma Meesseman scored 25 points for Belgium, and Kim Mestdagh added 24 points.
Thus, France and Japan will meet in the semifinals, which will be played on Friday. In the other semifinal will compete the Olympic champions from the USA and the bronze medalists from Rio 2016 Serbia.
