Belgian women’s basketball beat South Korea 84-61 on Friday in the second group game of the World Cup in Sydney, Australia. In the first half, Belgium led 50-30.
After a 87-72 defeat against USA favorites, the Belgian Cats had to take the full spoils against the South Koreans, who lost to China 44-107 on the first day of play. In the first quarter, the team of national coach Valery Demore immediately imposed his will: 26-12. Already made 20 points in the first half.
South Korea, in Australia without their superstar Park Ji Soo, managed to keep up with the third quarter (19-20). Demory gave a rest to some strongholds. In the end, the Cats ran to 84-61.
In Group A, the Cats will play Puerto Rico on Saturday (12:30 p.m.), Monday (3:30 a.m.) against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on Tuesday (5:30 a.m.) against China.
In 2018, in their first World Cup participation, the Cats finished fourth in Tenerife.
“The plan was to win this match with relative ease. I didn’t want the key players to play more than 25 minutes. We succeeded,” national team coach Valery Demore said after the victory.
“South Korea is a special team, they play a lot abroad and have young players. But my team worked well offensively,” Demory said. The Frenchman wants to rotate a lot in the World Cup. On Friday, Julie Allemand (26:37) and Antonia Delaer (26:26) were The longest in the parquet.All members of the Belgian team had minutes of play, so in the first half the Belgians had already led by 50-30.
The Cats now count a two-game win, after losing 87-72 to the United States favorite. We feel good. We knew it would be tough to beat the USA yesterday. “But we’ve shown we can handle their level,” said Julie Vanlow, who threw 14 points through the basket against South Korea. Only Hind Ben Abdelkader performed better with 17 points. “We definitely want to advance to the next round, that’s our goal. Now we focus on tomorrow’s match against Puerto Rico. This match is very important,” concluded Fanlo.
