Spain Reign Against Romania

Anna Cruz had nine points in a balanced Spain offense

Spain ended their EuroBasket Women Qualification Round campaign with a 68-54 home victory over Romania.

Point guard Cristina Ouvina led a balanced attack with 11 points and Marta Xargay added 10 as Spain beat the Romanians for the second time this summer.

Already assured of a second-place finish in Group D, Spain trailed early on against Romania but went on a 9-0 run to lead 16-9.

Anna Cruz had five points in that spurt for Spain.

The hosts ended up going in front 25-11 and stayed comfortably ahead for the remainder of the contest.

Spain out-rebounded Romania, 60-50, and would have been more convincing winners had they not struggled at the free-throw line.

Lucas Mondelo's side made just 14 of 24 at the charity stripe.

Their three-point shooting was excellent, however.

Elisa Aguilar made three shots from long range and the team hit 10 of 20 attempts.

While Spain improved to 6-2, Romania dropped to 2-5.

The Romanians will finish their Qualification Round with a game against Bulgaria on Saturday.

Spain vs. Romania

Spain head coach Lucas Mondelo
"We're satisfied because the goal was qualifying for EuroBasket Women 2013. The team knew how to be competitive, has faced strong rivals, and young players have gone a step ahead. Next year, at EuroBasket Women 2013, the goal is to be competitive, seize the moment, let the players return to their clubs and have a good planning. We have also to recuperate players that, for various reasons, they haven't been with us. There are wishes to do it well and with quality."

Spain center Cindy Lima
"I've felt so fit to take rebounds and I knew what I had to do. This kind of format is difficult, it has been watched that we've paid it. This is not our basketball. We've had problems to adjust to a basketball like we've played."

Romania player Elisabeth Pavel
"It was a really good game. We played good and we've made some mistakes. If we can eliminate these small mistakes we can be even better. It doesn't matter if we have chances or not to qualify for EuroBasket Women 2013. We'll thrill every game, we'll be competitive and we'll play good. We're a young team and we can improve in these games and these qualifiers are good for us. So we'll improve a lot. And for next year, and even in two years, I think we'll be better thanks to these games."

Romania head coach Dan Fleseriu
"It was a tough game for us. There are big differences individually between the two teams and we could see a lot of them. We had a lot of turnovers, but I have to say that my team today has made a really good game. We lost our chances when we played in Sweden. The last game at home was a very big disappointment, but the players understand they are playing for themselves and it's very important to play good. Of course we'll try to play good with Bulgaria. Bulgaria won today against Germany so we'll try to avoid the last position in the group. We have young players and it's important to have these kind of games to build a team. Probably, we'll be back."