ANKARA
FIBA World Championship for Women quarter-final showdown started Friday in Istanbul as Australia and Spain qualify for the semi-finals.
The first game in Ulker Sports Arena saw a tight clash between Australia and Canada, where the Aussies beat their opponents 63-52.
The Australian women's team, nicknamed Opals, were able to hold on to their strong second quarter performence to advance to the semi-finals in the tournament.
Australia, outscoring the Canadian women 17-7 in the second quarter, managed to make more assists and pulled down more rebounds than their opponents in the game.
Australia's shooting guard Erin Phillips was the high-scorer of the match with 16 points. She was joined by her teammate center Marianna Tolo with 13 points and game-high of 9 rebounds.
The top performer for Canada was power forward Miranda Ayim with 11 points and she also grabbed a team-high of 7 rebounds.
2006 World Cup winners Australia will play the winners of U.S.vs France match in the semis, which will start at 21:15 (GMT+3) in Istanbul.
The second match of the quarter-finals was between Spain and China, where the Spanish women cruised past the Chinese ladies 71-55.
China failed to make a good start to the match, and they trailed behind 20-9 after the first quarter. China's efforts were futile as they could not score double-digit points again in the second quarter only scoring 8 points. Spain was comfortably ahead after the first half, 35-17.
The rest of the game did not produce any surprises as Spain won the match by a margin of 16 points to book themselves a semi-final ticket.
Top performer for Spain was power forward Sancho Lyttle with a game-high of 24 points, she also pulled down 7 rebounds for her team.
Shooting guard Alba Torrens helped her teammate with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists for an all-around performance.
Spain will play the winners of Turkey vs Serbia match in the semis, which has just started in Istanbul Friday.
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