Opals defeat Spain for win number four

Australia has held on for a hard fought 72-68 win over Spain in Brazil to keep its women's basketball world championship campaign on track.

The Opals were never headed but struggled to put away the fiesty Spaniards who refused to lie down, even when Australia surged to a 22-10 quarter-time lead.

“Clearly this was our toughest game,” Australian coach Jan Stirling said.

“Spain are a wonderful team and I've got great respect for Spain.

“Even though we had a margin in the first quarter, it was obvious Spain would come back, they are a very, very high quality team.

“We're very pleased to come away with the win.”

Lauren Jackson was well held by the Europeans, but a host of other Australians stepped up, including Kristi Harrower, Tully Bevilaqua and Jenny Whittle.

Penny Taylor top-scored with 13 while Whittle equalled Jackson's 11.

The Opals are still finding it difficult to gel and need to lift significantly in their next match, against the host nation.

They have little time to recover as the game will commence at 9:30am local time tomorrow (10:30pm Sunday AEST).

“It'll be a very, very competitive game and there will be another aspect with the crowd and the noise in here, which we need to pay attention to,” Taylor said.

“The positive tonight is having virtually everyone on our team contributing on the scoreboard, so if we can keep that up and have contributions from everyone defensively and offensively, that's a key to tomorrow's game as well.”

Match Details:

AUSTRALIA 72 – Taylor 13, Jackson 11, Whittle 11

SPAIN 68 – Valdemoro 19, Fernandez 13, Montanana 12

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