Belgium was a tough nut to crack for Spain. The women’s basketball team was eliminated from the Paris Games in the quarterfinals against a team-oriented opponent, crowned by two stars in the form of centres Meesseman (19 points) and Linskens (another 19), the same opponent that beat them in the final of the last Eurobasket. There was hardly any suspense when the continental champions tightened their defence and deployed their attacking ammunition midway through the second quarter. Spain could not find a way to respond on both boards, no matter how much faith and effort they put in. It was not a question of character but of play.
Two three-pointers from Meesseman in less than 40 seconds were the welcome message from the Belgian star. The team conceded a 2-8 start without even realising what was going on. The enormous Linskens was intimidating on the inside and gave Meesseman freedom of movement to weave combinations and strike in interior positions. Belgium rarely missed an attack, almost always in areas free for shooting, without sufficient opposition from Mendez’s players. Spain arrived late or did not arrive when the Belgians moved the ball from one corner to another. The Spanish team reacted from the perimeter, and thus survived with the bingos of Cazorla and Conde waiting to cover the leaks in defence. The team did not commit any fouls in the first quarter, a sign that it needed a little more aggressiveness. Even so, it reached the first break with an offensive push and the success from outside of Gustafson (26-26).
The naturalised American kept her fists high. Meesseman responded in the paint with a dance of feet in a high-altitude duel at the Arena Bercy between the two stars of both teams. Laura Gil and Gustafson took turns locking down the Belgian pivot, but other cries opened up. Belgium moved the ball very well and showed all kinds of weapons. Linskens was a torment in the paint for the Spanish defence because of the difficulty in stopping such a big body. Together with Meesseman, she forms a duo that makes the difference on the boards, in the back cut and in production. Belgium regained the initiative with another burst of good play and success from any corner (32-42). Spain had become stuck and a journey of 4m 35s without a basket to put in their mouth, after some errors under the hoop, was a heavy burden before the break (37-48).
Méndez injected a burst of physical play in an attempt to stop the bleeding, even at the cost of giving up offensive flow, very dependent on Gustafson. The recipe did not work either. Belgium continued unstoppable and Spain did not find a way to get a grip on the matter, inferior in hand-to-hand combat and in collective play. The team tried two points in more than six minutes, standing in front of a wall without windows. The Belgian team displayed artillery and fixed its advantage at a barrier of about 20 points that turned the outcome into a one-way path (47-67). The script did not change even though Spain never raised the white flag and that it recovered some pages from its resistance manual (60-71). The group beat China in Lille and Puerto Rico by one point in the group phase, gave its best version against Serbia and already in Paris this time it collided with a great team called Belgium. “A very bad game at the worst time,” Méndez summarized; “We were not able to make them play differently than they wanted to play. The game was very tough for us. It was a tough way to go because we didn’t compete, we didn’t put our weapons on the field.”
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