Emma Meesseman helps Belgium advance to the quarterfinals in Olympic women’s basketball

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Belgium star Emma Meesseman is going blonde. The forward, who has now scored 20 or more points in an Olympic women’s basketball record seven straight games, helped her team advance to the quarterfinals with an 85-58 win over Japan on Sunday. “That will have to wait,” she said, smiling, “after we’re done in Paris.” Getting to Paris seemed far-fetched to Meesseman and her Belgian teammates after an opening loss to Germany. And then as soon as I saw the crowd against USA, I was like, ‘okay, I know what I’ll do it for now.’ I do it for the fans, for ourselves, for Belgium.” There were more than 25,000 fans for the Belgians loss to the U.S. and then another huge pro-Cats crowd was in the arena Sunday morning.