BEIJING (Olympics) – Belarus piled on the misery for Latvia at the Beijing Games on Monday with an 79-57 win.

It marked the basketball team’s first-ever triumph in an Olympics and also denied Latvia theirs.

In a rematch of last year’s bronze-medal game at the EuroBasket Women, Belarus prevailed again with Yelena Leuchanka scoring 22 points to lead all scorers.

“We are the surprise team here,” said Belarus point guard Natallia Marchanka to FIBA.com.

When asked if she believed her team had one foot in the quarter-finals after the success, Marchanka added: "Not at all. All teams are different and we have to keep playing tough.

“Defense is the key as we showed today. Hopefully we will keep it in mind."

Belarus, beaten soundly in their opener by world champions Australia, forced Latvia into 25 turnovers and also held them to 39% (22 of 57) shooting from the floor overall.

Belarus bounced back from their defeat to Australia and will now take on European rivals Russia.

"They are European champions,” Marchanka said.

“We are going to fight through and we will see. We have to continue to believe in ourselves. Be confident, just mark and be wise.”

For Latvia, who are also making their Olympic bow, the tournament becomes much more complicated as they lost their opening game to Russia.

To progress to the next stage, they will need to finish in the top four and to do that, they must win a couple of games. Ainars Zvirgzdins’ team still has clashes with Brazil, Australia and Korea.

Gunta Basko had 19 points to pace them on Monday.

Belarus went up by 18 in the third quarter but Latvia battled back and reduced the deficit to 60-49 at the end of the third quarter.

Anete Jekabsone-Zogota hit a three-ball to cut the gap to eight early in the fourth, but Leuchanka made two free throws at the start of a 9-0 run as Belarus took command for good.

FIBA