The Czech Republic may not get the chance to defend their EuroBasket Women title, but they did remain alive for the pre-Olympic qualification tournament with a comfortable 75-50 victory over Belgium on Saturday.

Michaela Uhrova came off the bench to score 15 points and Eva Viteckova added 14 points as the 2005 champions advanced to a Sunday showdown with Lithuania for fifth place at the 2007 EuroBasket Women.

“It was good that we had a day off after our defeat against Belarus. Our priority was to

		Katerina Elhotova led the Czech Republic with 21 points to go with six rebounds.

focus on this game. We knew that we had two matches to achieve qualification for pre-Olympic tournament,” said Viteckova, who added three rebounds, four assists and two steals.

"For us, it's a big disappointment not to be able to finish in the top four but at least we have a chance to qualify for the Olympics.”

The Czechs's tough defense forced Beglium into 22 turnovers and held them to 39% (19-of-48) shooting, including 0-of-10 from three-point range, while holding Ann Wauters to 17 points.

"I think we played great defense and we didn't let Ann Wauters to play as she can. She scored 17 points but we limited her effectiveness,” Viteckova added.

Czech boss Jan Bobrovsky also was able to rest his starters, with none playing more than 26 minutes.

In fact, the Czech bench out-scored the starting five 40-35, including Michala Hartigova's 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Belgium, who lost their fourth straight match after four victories to start the tournament, will face France for seventh place in Sunday's first match.

“I think we started really poorly. Since we lost to Latvia, we’ve been going down slowly and we’re playing worse,” said Belgium coach Laurent Buffard.

Wauters led Belgium with 17 points but no other players scored more than seven points.

“We’re very disappointed. Our goal was to be fifth. We have some regrets after losing two close games in the second round. If we hadn’t, it might have been different now,” said Wauters.

“We had a goal, we didn’t achieve it. But that’s life, that’s sports, life goes on.”

The Czechs didn't allow anything easy early for Belgium, who missed 10 of their first 11 shots and committed five turnovers in the first eight minutes of the game, and Petra Kulichova's third basket gave Bobrovsky's team a 17-2 lead.

Evelien Callens' jumper ended a 6:26 scoreless drought and Belgium trailed 20-7 after one period.

Buffard's team tried to scrape back into it as Wauters scored her first points of the game. The Belgian star tallied nine points in the quarter, but the Czechs didn't let up defensively and Hartigova's eight second quarter points – including two three-pointers – helped keep Belgium at bay, 39-24 at the break.

Wauters sparked a 9-4 run to start the third period with Kathy Wambe's basket cutting the deficit to 10 points – 43-33 – at the 4:18 mark of the quarter. But Uhrova drained three-pointers to start and finish a 15-4 spurt to close the third ahead 58-37.

The Belgians had one final push to get back into the game and trimmed the deficit to 16 points – 64-48 with four minutes left. The Czechs, however, answered with the next eight points to put the contest to rest for good.

There's nothing more difficult for a team used to winning than to get up for a game they know will not get them a medal.

Czech Republic played in the finals in the last two EuroBaskets, but suddenly find themselves in a classification game, uncharted territory for most of the players on that squad.

		The last time Wauters and Belgium faced the Czechs she had a big game in a close loss.

The classification games are a totally different mind set and the big test for the Czechs will be to get into the right mood.

They had one more day to recover from the shocking loss to Belarus, so that might be on their side.

The teams met just a few days ago in the qualification round.

Czech won that game in the last minutes 72-70 after Belgium held a strong lead for much of the game.

For Belgium it's good news as they already proved to themselves that they can match up with the Czechs and will have no fear in their eyes taking the court.

Last Result: The former champs were shocked by Belarus 52-46 while Belgium suffered the biggest quarter-finals loss with a 19 point thrashing at the hands of Spain 72-53.

Key Matchup: Ann Wauters against Eva Viteckova is surely one of the best match ups this tournament has to offer. When they met four days ago Wauters had 22 points and 12 rebounds but Viteckova matched her with 22 points of her own.

X-Factor: Kathy Wambe gave a great performance against the Czechs. With 13 points, seven assists and four rebounds she was exactly the extra hand Wauters needed. A better day from the line though could have made the difference. Now she'll have a chance to make up for it.

Key Stat: Belgium is the second best team in steals in the competition while the Czechs tend to turn it over. If Belgium makes a lot of easy points off those steals Czech Republic will be in trouble.

What Does it Mean?: The winner will keep the Olympics dream alive with the fight for fifth place the following day, while the loser will have nothing but pride to fight for in attempt to win the seventh place.