Germany defeated Belgium 93-74 on Thursday to advance to the women’s FIBA World Cup semifinals, where they will face the winner of United States vs. Spain.
Leonie Fiebich scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds to lead Germany to a showdown with France on Saturday. Nyara Sabally also had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Everyone stepped up today and we did it from the first second to the very last,” said Alexandra Wilke, who contributed 10 points.
Megan Gustafson scored 16 points and led Spain to an 89-66 win over injury-hit Australia in the last quarterfinal, ending the Americans’ wait to learn their next opponent. The four-time defending champions routed Hungary 108-56 in the first quarterfinal to stretch their winning streak in the tournament to 34 games.
Australia was without forward Ezi Magbegor, who tore her right ACL in the win over Italy, and Alanna Smith, who re-aggravated a leg injury at the start of the tournament.
It’s really hard to compete against the best in the world when you don’t have all your best players, but I think it was a great experience for all our younger players,” Australia coach Sandy Brondello said.
Brondello is married to Germany coach Olaf Lange and she said she was “really proud of my husband, which is very weird to say,” after what Lange had called the “ best day in German basketball ” as Germany progressed.
“I was a little teary out there, I went and watched the end of the game,” said Brondello, who previously also coached some of the German players.
Germany had never gotten to the semifinals before. The players screamed and whooped in celebration.
“I can’t quite believe it yet,” forward Frieda Bühner said. “We’re among the best four teams in the world. I can’t believe it. It’s crazy.”
Germany had lost its opening game by 30 points to Spain, but bounced back with impressive wins over Japan and Mali following a dominant playoff win over South Korea that got them to the quarterfinals.
With the announcer's passionate commentary, fans in the Berlin Arena erupted, cheering, jumping, and waving Germany flags to keep the home team rolling.
“It’s always really cool to play in front of such a crowd,” Sabally said. “I couldn’t have wished for more, especially in Germany. It’s really cool to see that there’s so much hype and the whole venue is caught up in it. It’s really, really cool.”