STA, 22 June 2021 - The Slovenian women's basketball team have been knocked out of the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2021 in France with a defeat against Russia (93:75) in the quarter-finals qualification.
For the second time in a row, the Slovenian women's basketball team leaves EuroBasket Women after the additional qualification rounds.
In 2019, they were stopped by Belgium in Belgrade, and this year they finished the tournament in Strasbourg with two wins and two losses.
After defeating Slovenia yesterday, Russia will now play Belgium in the quarter-finals. The other three pairs are Belarus-Sweden, France-Bosnia and Serbia-Spain.
The Slovenian team will have another chance to improve on their achievements in two years' time on home court, as the 39th European Women Basketball Championship will be held in Slovenia.
Slovenia improved on the results compared to the previous tournament in Serbia, but this time, after two good performances against Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the team also put up two very poor showings, as Belgium beat them by 35 points and Russia by 18.
Yesterday's match against Russia was practically already decided in the first half. After a bad start, Slovenia continued to do even worse.
Their opponents grabbed ten offensive rebounds in the first quarter and easily built up a 15-point lead, and at one point the Russians were up 46:19.
In the second half, the balance of power remained the same. The Russians had the game in their hands, and the difference did not go below 20 points, except for a few short minutes.
Russia won the rebounding battle 41:31, had 28 assists, hit 13 threes and had four players in double figures. Shante Evans (21 points, 8 rebounds, 7/9 shooting) and Eva Lisec (19 points, 7 rebounds, 6/10 shooting) scored the most points for Slovenia.
Slovenia's head coach Damir Grgić said after the match: 'I would like to congratulate my players for fighting until the end, but today we were simply too weak for Russia. They were a much better opponent, they took advantage of everything we don't have."
"Now it is time for analysis. We must keep our heads up - in two years' time, this generation will have a new opportunity. This is still a young team that can play at least one more Olympic cycle together. I am proud of them and their work," added Grgič.
The team captain Nika Barič also spoke after the game: "The Russians dictated the rhythm from the first minute. We allowed ourselves too many mistakes, especially in defence. Congratulations to Russia for the win, and all credit to my teammates for fighting until the last second."
