27.06.2012

Romania Edge Bulgaria, Stay In The Hunt

Romania scraped a 70-68 victory at Bulgaria on Wednesday to get their EuroBasket Women Qualification Round campaign back on track.

Annemarie Parau drove in and made a lay-up with four seconds left to give the visitors the win.

Romania improved to 2-2 in Group D with the victory while Bulgaria fell to 0-4.

The Bulgarians had looked good bets to claim their first triumph after Jaklin Zlatanova, who had a game-high 25 points, made a lay-up nearly a minute into the fourth quarter for a 56-49 lead.

Veteran shooting guard Ancuta Stoenescu refused to let Romania's hopes die, though, by reeling off seven unanswered points to knot the contest at 56-56.

The 32-year-old hit three jump shots, including one from behind the arc, as Romania tied the contest with 7:00 to go.

At the 6:03 mark, Zlatanova's lay-up put the hosts back in front at 59-56, but the game remained tied and had several lead changes.

With 55 seconds to play, Vera Perostiyska scored to pull Bulgaria level at 68-68.

Alexandra Uiuiu then missed a jumper for the visitors and Bulgaria rebounded, only for Uiuiu to grab a miss by the hosts' Radoslava Bachvarova.

Romania called timeout and when play resumed, Parau scored to put the visiting side back in front.

Bulgaria coach Jose Maria Buceta called timeout and the team was able to get the ball to Zlatanova, who attempted a potential game-tying shot but missed.

Romania, having led Spain at the end of three quarters on Saturday before losing, avoided another costly defeat.

Stoenescu had a team-high 25 points for the winners and Gabriela Marginean contributed 22.

Parau had a solid all-round effort of 12 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.

Bulgaria finished with 19 turnovers and Romania 18.

27.06.2012

Quotes Bulgaria vs. Romania

Gabriela Marginean, Romania player:
"We are very happy with this win. It was a really tough game. We started very strong and this was good for us. In the second half we were some points behind, but we stayed together till the end. The Bulgarians played really well, but we succeeded in our effort."

Dan Fleseriu, Romania coach:
"This was a real team victory. It was not good that we lost the third quarter, after we won the first two. Even the difference was too low in the halftime, it seemed to be easier, but Bulgarians played well after the break. We are very happy with this tough win."

Dimana Georgieva, Bulgaria player:
"We must not create a tragedy [out of this game]... We lost a fourth game in a row. But we fought till the very end and we should have won this game. Every player in our team did their best today but unfortunately, we lost. Now we are looking ahead, we will give our best in every game.  I believe, we can win every game. It will be hard for us to go on a winning road, but we are professional players, so we know how to recover after such loss. We had our chances today, we missed, but we will go on."

Jose Maria Buceta, Bulgaria coach:
"It is hard now, as we lost a fourth game in a row. In the first half we didn't play so well in defense,  but we improved after halftime. We had chances; we even led by seven points. But the Romanians shot well in this game; We should have won this game. But at the end we had no good assistance in offence. Now we have to try to improve our play. We always play game by game, so we will try to win the next one."