Czech Republic Soar Past Romania

The Czech Republic's full-court pressure defense and fast-paced offense proved too much to handle for Romania who were beaten 105-63 at the U18 European Championship for Women.

Romania - who  needed a win to have a chance of moving on to the qualifying round -made a strong push

Dominika Behalová had 11 points, five rebounds and four assists in the win.

by scoring the first eight points of the third quarter and close within eight, 50-42. But the Czechs quickly regained their composure and doubled their intensity on defense to have the game all but wrapped up with a 70-49 as they headed into the final frame.

Romana Ptackova's girls became the first team to score over a hundred points in a game in the tournament when Alena Hanusova scored on a putback with just over a minute left.

"We didn't panic when Romania came back early in the second half," Ptackova said afterwards. "That's the nature of the game. Teams make runs but after Romania made theirs, we pushed even stronger the rest of the way."

Five players scored in double figures for the Czech Republic, with Klara Rosembaumova, Katerina Zavazalova and Eva Skutilova each netting 14.

The Czechs forced Romania into 13 first-quarter turnovers and hit 12 of 19 free-throws to take a 31-17 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Madalin Piperea's side came within three, 16-13 but were then outscored 15-4 the rest of the first period.

And the onslaught continued in the second period as the lead grew to 39-18 on Zavazalova's lay up with just over seven minutes left before the half.

Romania actually shot better than their opponents in the first two quarters and that kept them from being completely blown out of the water as they cut the gap down to 14, 50-34, at the break.

Following their short spurt after the break, the Romanians were outscored 55-21 the rest of the way as they fell to 0-3 in Group A. Bianca Barbu had a team-high 13 points.