France advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2007 EuroBasket Women with a hard-fought 68-60 victory over Serbia in the final game of the qualifying round.

Sandrine Gruda scored 16 points and Emilie Gomis added 14 points off the bench for the French, who finished 3-2 for third place in Group F, setting up a final eight showdown with Latvia.

		The French defense harassed Serbia into 23 turnovers.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game because Serbia are a team that never gives up but we can always rely on our defense,” said France interior player Emmeline Ndongue, who helped force 23 Serbian turnovers.

The French, who survived an 0-for-10 shooting night from three-point range, used a 15-4 third-quarter run to take over the momentum and didn't allow the Serbs to come back in the fourth quarter.

“We started well, but France is a very, very good team. We just couldn't match them today,” said Serb playmaker Maja Milijkovic, whose team finished 1-4 in Group F and failed to qualify for the quarters despite being the only team to beat the mighty Russians so far.

“Of course we're disappointed about going home so early. But we are a very young team and we hope that in 2009 we'll be able to use the experience we gained for better results there.”

Ivana Grubor paced the Serbs with 17 points with Ana Perovic adding 12 points and Marina Puskar chipping in 11 points.

Serbia started very well especially defensively and pulled ahead 10-3 early.

A second three-pointer by Grubor left the young Serbs up 21-12 but France trailed only 23-18 after 10 minutes.

Another Grubor basket began the second quarter before France reeled off an 11-0 run to grab a 29-25 advantage midway through the period.

A Perovic hook shot stopped the bleeding and Serbia played even the rest of the half, trailing 37-34 at the break.

Jovica Antonic's Serbs were still in the game, 41-40 on Puskar's basket with eight minutes to go in the third. But the French turned up their defense and closed the quarter on a 15-4 spurt to lead 56-47 going into the fourth.

The third period however was marred by a head-to-head collision midway through the period between Miljana Musovic and Audrey Sauret-Gillespie, the latter of which had to be carried off the court by the French medical staff but did return to the bench late in the game after getting three stitches.

Serbia tried to fight back into the game in the fourth, but Gruda buried two big jumpers and Sandra Le Drean's basket gave Les Bleus an 11-point lead 62-51. Jacques Commeres's team would not let Serbia closer than eight points the rest of the way.

The closing game of the qualifying round will decide the last ticket to the quarter-finals, as it should.

France is in a much better position.

They can afford a double-digit loss and still make it to the next round, while Serbia will

		Musovic and team-mate Maja Miljkovic will need to be on the same page for Serbia to have a chance.

have to wait for the result of the first game between Belarus and Italy to know exactly where they stand.

Serbia showed on the first day they can win big when they beat Croatia by 18 but since then have managed just a big two point win over Russia and lost the rest.

France slipped just in one game, against the strong Russian team, and even then it was just a four point loss.

Last Time Out: France lost 53-63 to Spain after three close quarters while Serbia scored only 43 points in the 64-43 loss to Italy.

Head to Head: In EuroBasket 2003 Sebria & Montenegro faced France twice. While in the preliminary round they beat them by two points, later in the competition France revenged with a 22 point win. Serbia will need to mirror that this time.

Key Match Up: When 20-year-old Sandrine Gruda is good it usually shows on France's game as well. In the only game she didn't score in double digits France lost to Russia. In the second loss to Spain she was stopped in the last quarter with zero points and that's when Spain took off. Serbia will try to find the answer in their top rebounder Marina Puskar who will try to use her size to slow down Gruda.

X-Factor: Maja Miljkovic and Miljana Musovic, the two young prospects on the Serbian squad had their share of ups and downs in this championship. Next to some great games they disappeared in the others. The only one to which both showed up was the 18 point win against Croatia on day one. Serbia needs to reach that area again and will need both Miljkovic and Musovic in top shape.

Statistics: In the last three games Serbia didn't score more than 67 points. Considering they need a 19-20 point win, reaching that will probably not be enough. Serbia will have to find the magic touch that made them one of the best offensive teams here in the first couple of days of the tournament if they want to stay in the competition.

What It Means: Bottom line is Serbia needs a big win to advance to quarter-finals.