Igor Grudin (Russia Coach): I am satisfied with the result. The first period was tough, however, in the second period we played really well in offence, which caused the difference in score. It was important for us to start the championship with a victory.
Maria Stepanova (Russia): We had an easy victory against Romania. In some periods of the game Romania played intensive defence, yet we played more seriously and with more concentration and we won the game.
Don Feseriu (Romania Assistant Coach): We had real troubles in scoring. Playing against Russia is very difficult and added to that we are short in height compared to Russia.
Larissa Toma (Romania): We could not play our normal game. Russia is a tall team. We played partly well, in some parts of the game we put up good defence. We hope that we will play much better in the next games.
Russia launched their EuroBasket title defence in grand style with a 92-60 thumping of Romania in Izmir.
Tatiana Shchegoleva led an impressive Russian attack with 20 points, while center Maria Stepanova was excellent as well with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
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Maria Stepanova
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Igor Grudin's team grabbed a stranglehold on the Group B game early. Olga Arteshina's three-pointer with six minutes to play in the first quarter gave Russia a 10-9 lead and also sparked a 17-3 run which ended with 2:00 left in the opening period.
Romania trailed 24-12 at that stage and never recovered.
There is no Elena Baranova, Russia's top player in recent campaigns, but they are deep and can throw waves of players at opponents as they did against the Romanians, who are longshots to advance from Group B.
All 12 members of the Russian squad played and scored, and 10 of those logged at least 11 minutes on court.
No explanation is needed for Russia as to why they insisted on Stepanova returning to Europe from the WNBA, where she was a key member of the Phoenix Mercury.
With the 2.02m Stepanova in the lane, they are an imposing team. Without her, teams will not be intimidated by Russia.
Svetlana Dragusin, a 35-year-old forward, led the Romanians with 16 points on seven of 11 shooting.
The only other player in double figures was center Gabriela Toma with 10 points.
On Saturday, Russia take on hosts Turkey while Romania face Spain.
