The final score shows France was the better team after 40 minutes, but they found themselves in a dogfight with Italy for two-and-a-half quarters before les Bleues pulled away for a 76-61 victory.

By the end it was all Sandrine Gruda, even if it didn't start out that way. 

The French center was sent to the bench by coach Pierre Vincent after she picked up two fouls in the game's first two-and-a-half minutes. 

He kept her out for the next ten minutes, but when she came back she took over, scoring a game-high 23 points while playing smart defense and staying out of further foul trouble.

Gruda said she didn't get frazzled by the early fouls.

"I knew it was going be a hard game so the refs were watching everything, but I told myself, that's cool, that's a part of the game," she said.

Nor did she reign in her aggressiveness.  Well, maybe a tad bit.

"I guess I was sure when I came back in the game that I didn't do any extra pushing," she said with a little grin.

The first half was a tug of war that ended in a near draw with the score even at 34. 

Neither team could move beyond a four point lead.

With Gruda on the pine in the first quarter, France relied on a balanced attack while Laura Macchi took on the scoring load for her Italy.  She ended up with a tally of 13 points in the half to go along with 4 rebounds. 

Unfortunately, for the Italians, Macchi would only score three more in the entire second half.

The third quarter opened with Gruda putting in the first nine of her team's 11 points.  Her offensive outburst combined with Italy missing five of its last six shots in the quarter resulted in a 57-44 lead for France after 30 minutes.

Italian forward Simona Ballardini said that while her team fought hard, France was a notch above tonight. 

"If we missed one thing, if we didn't score, they punished us immediately," Ballardini said.

Gruda's total dominance was best exemplified in two incredible back-to-back plays in France's 29-point fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

On the first play Gruda rebounded a missed free throw and put it in for a deuce pushing her team's lead to 16 with over just over seven minutes to go.

Then on France's next possession she received an alley-opp off an inbounds play that she flipped in for another two.

It was a sequence that broke any Italian hope of a comeback.

Italian center Marte Alexander recognized the French's superiority on the inside which led to a 24-40 disparity in rebounds.

"We started off really physical and we really tried to concentrate on negating their inside game where most of their points came from and trying not to let them get rebounds. And I think we did a pretty good job. And then we just kind of got a little lost defensively. To their credit they just started to light us up. Gruda is really good, she's quick. Us big fives are a little slower but we have a little more meat and our fours are a little lighter but they are quicker."

Italy can take heart they played France tough through the majority of the game, although it wasn't enough in the end. 

Pierre Vincent, France Head Coach

"We are happy! We won! Our offensive was quicker. We wanted to control tempo, and we did."

Giampiero Ticchi, Italy Head Coach

"The key moment of the game was in the third quarter - in the last five minutes France outscored us 15-2."

After going seven-and-one in the Qualifying Round, France is poised to take care of business and erase all the bad memories of 2007's eighth place finish.  Standing in their way on day one, however, is an Italian side that is out to get revenge for the thumping France dealt them two years ago on their home turf in EuroBasket Women 2007.

Both teams need to prove that this tournament will be different from the last.  France wants to return to the glory of winning the continental title eight years ago while the Azzurre are ready to send the message that the days of coming in ninth place are long over.

Sandrine Gruda needs her guards to step up to take the pressure off of her in the paint.

Head-to-Head:  France topped Italy 64-48 in the Eurobasket 2007 in Chieti, Italy.  Sandrine Gruda led the way for Les Bleues with 14 points.

Last Time Out:  Italy lost to Serbia 60-56 while France handled Australia 80-60 in respective final warm-up games.

Key Match-up:  Italy's do-everything Simona Ballardini vs. Celine Dumerc, France's "best player" in the words of coach Pierre Vincent who compares her to fellow countryman Tony Parker.  The versatile Ballardini missed the 2007 tournament but piloted her team through this year's Qualifying Round with 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and an incredible three steals a game.  Dumerc, for her part, plays big at point guard.  She prides herself on defense, and besides scoring 10 points, she also pulled in five rebounds and dished four assists per outing in the Qualifying Round.

Key Stat:  The 14.6 points that center Sandrine Gruda averaged for France in EuroBasket 2007.  On the other side of the coin, her team only shot a combined 23% from beyond the three-point arc.  Gruda needs her team-mates to get  points from the outside to completely maximize her interior play this time around.

X-Factor:  Italy lost two point guards, Giorgia Sottana and Angela Gianolla, to injury in the run-up to Latvia and tried a whopping total of six point guards in the Qualifying Round.  Is this moment when the 20-year-old Mariana Franchini fulfils her potential after being named the "World Adidas Streetball Champion" twice in 1997 and 1998?  Coach Giampero Ticchi has entrusted her to captain his team.  Now she has to step up to the challenge.

Sounding off:  "This year we have worked on giving value, and emphasizing to the girls the importance of wearing the azzurri colours."- Italy coach Giampiero Ticchi on reviving the patriotic spirit of his squad.