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Aug. 5, 2012

LONDON – Former South Carolina women’s basketball center Ilona Burgrova helped the Czech Republic into the quarterfinals at the 2012 London Olympics as her team defeated Angola 82-47 in the final game of pool play. Another basketball alumna Iva Sliskovic and her Croatia team completed their Olympic competition with a 70-65 loss to Turkey.

Burgrová added a pair of free throws to the offensive effort against Angola while blocking two shots and pulling down a rebound. She started all five games of pool play, averaging 6.2 points and 3.2 rebounds in 19.0 minutes. Shooting 40.7 percent from the field over the five games, Burgrová played her best against her former teammate Sliskovic’s squad, netting 19 points to go with four rebounds and six blocked shots in 24 minutes on the court.

“I think everybody in Czech Republic expected us to reach the quarterfinals but in the Olympics there are no teams which cannot play basketball,” Burgrová told the media after her team’s win over Angola. “It’s a hard tournament, and reaching the quarterfinals is a good result for us. I don’t think we’ve matched our expectations because we were hoping to beat more teams in the group. But reaching the quarterfinals was our goal so if we go further, that will be something extra for us.”

Sliskovic had her best game in her team’s finale. Seeing 13 minutes of action, she added six points in the loss. After not playing against the United States in the first game of the tournament, Sliskovic averaged 9.0 minutes per game, during which she scored 3.5 points per game.

Burgrová and the Czech Republic will face France on Tue., Aug. 7.