Spain Rout Bulgaria To Stay Top

Anna Cruz scored 16 points for Spain, who remain on top of Group D.

Spain started and finished strong to see off Bulgaria 79-51 on the road and move to 4-1 in Group D of the EuroBasket Women Qualification Round.

Spain outscored their hosts 50-22 in the first and last quarters - their entire margin of victory - including a 13-0 run in the last 4:17 minutes of the game to wrap up the win in Pravetz.

After Bulgaria took an early 7-4 lead, Spain went on a 17-4 tear to end the first quarter with a 23-11 lead when Cristina Ouvina nailed a three-pointer.

The second quarter of the game was all offence from both teams, Bulgaria edging it 21-20, before a defensive battle in the third which Spain nicked 9-8.

But crucially Bulgaria were doing nothing to eat into the advantage that Spain had built.

Any hopes they had of putting pressure on down the stretch were effectively ended when Elisa Aguilar nailed back-to-back three-pointers to make it 63-44, and after Daniela Peteva scored Bulgaria's final points with a lay-up 4:17 minutes from time, Spain ran away with it.

Anna Cruz led Spain with 16 points while Aguilar added 13 and Laia Palau 11.

Radoslava Bachvarova and Vera Perostiyska had 11 each for Bulgaria, who remain winless in the group after five games.

Quotes Bulgaria vs. Spain

Spain coach Lucas Mondelo:
"We are happy because we won a very important game. Even though Bulgaria haven't won any game since now, they are a really good team, they fought a lot, and were strong in every situation, but it was us that took the rhythm of the game today. Also it is always difficult to win as guests. For us this win is key in these qualification games, because now we can think easier about next game - against Sweden."

Spain player Laia Palau:
"We are happy because at home we had really big problems. Today we started to play well, especially after the first quarter. We were running a lot, trying to win the game. We showed good defence, we were good in offence too - we had some easy points. Now we have one more game, and if we beat Sweden by more than nine points we will qualify for EuroBasket Women 2013, which is our aim."

Bulgaria coach Jose Maria Biceta:
"Spain is very strong team. We would have had better chances if we played better defence. We tried everything - personal defence, zone, mixed. But they had a very good percentage in shooting. We had a chance to stop them in the third quarter, but they played very smart till the end. It is not finished - we have to play three more games. It will be hard because with a 0-5 record now, but we have to show that we are able to win."

Bulgaria player Dimana Georgieva:
"Spain is a great team. Today they showed us how to play easy basketball. We had some good moments. Unfortunately we learned that we have to be more consistent in our play. We had a hard loss against Romania and that was one factor we lost any chances to play in EuroBasket Women 2013. Now we have just to think about how we can improve our play."