It turns out that Spain won’t be the only giants to fall this summer at the EuroBasket Women in Poland. Turkey eliminates Belarus women wearing mini skirts to increase interest in women basketball.

On Monday afternoon, Turkey women also known as ” Faeries of Basketball”, eliminated powerhouse Belarus, winning 65-56 to advance to the Quarter-Finals and send Anatoli Buyalski’s squad with mini skirts crashing out of the tournament.

Saziye Ivegin fired Turkey to arguably the most important win in their history with 17 points while Birsel Vardarli pulled all the right strings at point guard, scoring 13 points, handing out seven assists and corralling six rebounds.

For the first time, Turkey will play in the last eight of the competition, and it couldn’t have come at a more important time as they are trying to build momentum ahead of the FIBA World Championship for Women they will be hosting in 2014.

The Turkey coach, Ceyhun Yildizoglu, couldn’t stop smiling in the post-game press conference.

Turkey Women never lost hope in Poland, despite beating only Slovakia in Group A to advance to Round 2.

Next they won a pulsating game against Great Britain in Group E to set up a do-or-die battle for fourth place with Belarus.

“We played together and all my players today played good,” Yildizoglu said.

“What else can I say? I am very happy.

“It’s the first time we have passed into the final eight.”

Belarus Women Basketball needs more than mini skirts

Just like Spain, who endured a surprise defeat to Croatia on Sunday to miss the Quarter-Finals, Belarus put forth their most disappointing performance in many a year at this EuroBasket Women.

They have played at all the big tournaments since, including the 2008 Olympics and last year’s FIBA World Championship for Women where Buyalski and Co came within seconds of making it to the title game before losing to the hosts, the Czech Republic. The veteran-laded team, just like Spain, can forget the Olympics.

They will now have to go through qualifying just to reach the EuroBasket Women 2013 in France.

Turkey are now full of self-belief and already looking forward to a clash with the tournament’s hottest team, Montenegro.

The sides met earlier this month when Turkey hosted Montenegro during the preparations.

Yasemin Horasan of Turkey said: “Our goal now is to get a medal.”

“They’re (Montenegro) a really good team. “We played against them in Turkey in a tournament but this is different. “We want to go to the Olympics so we’ll prepare for them… we beat them in Turkey but it was a scrimmage. “They want to go to the Olympics, too.”

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