Marta Xargay Leads Spain to Women’s EuroBasket Title

Marta Xargayhas helped her country earn a special repeat…

The 28-year-old Spanish professional basketball player, who has played for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and Spain’s women’s national basketball team, led her team with 23 points to give Spain an 86-66 win over France in the Women’s EuroBasket championship on Sunday.

Marta Xargay

It was Spain’s fourth title overall in the biennial event, as the Spaniards previously won in 1993, 2013 and 2017. Spain is the first country to win this title back-to-back since the Soviet Union’s run of 17 championships in a row from 1960 to 1991.

Xargay’s teammate Astou Ndourhad four points Sunday but averaged 14.8 for the tournament and was named MVP..

New York Liberty guard Bria Hartley, a former UConn standout, had 17 points and four assists for France. Hartley is among several current WNBA players who’ll be headed back to their teams now that EuroBasket has concluded.

Former WNBA player Sandrine Gruda, who was part of the Los Angeles Sparks‘ 2016 WNBA championship team, led France with 18 points.

With their results at EuroBasket, Spain, France, Serbia, Great Britain, Sweden and Belgium earned the right to represent Europe in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournamentsfor the 2020 Tokyo Games.