The Belgian national team wore black stripes on their jerseys during their 2007 EuroBasket Women quarter-final showdown with Spain to honour the death of the boyfriend of reserve forward Eveline Decroos.

The 22-year-old Decroos has her parents with her in Chieti and is due to fly back to Brussels Saturday morning.

"It was shocking for us today. We tried to win for her but it didn't work out." said Ann Wauters after the teams quarter-final loss to Spain.

"Now we're going to try to get that Olympic spot for her.

"We really wanted to win this game for her. We found out just today around lunchtime and it was really hard for us too to be mentally ready." commented guard Anke De Mondt.

Decroos, who was not on the bench for Belgium's game, has scored two points in 15 minutes of action over three games, while also collecting five rebounds, one assist and one steal.