Great Britain’s women suffered a heartbreaking 80-77 overtime loss, at the hands of France at the Olympic Basketball Arena on Friday night.
With the score level at 77 and just a few seconds remaining France’s Celine Dumerc drained a clutch triple to seal the win. With 0.2 seconds remaining, Chantelle Handy attempted to match the three but unfortunately couldn’t get the shot off before the buzzer.
GB, who had already been eliminted earlier in the day and were playing for nothing but bride, now fall to 0-4 in Group B with one game remaining.
Jo Leedham led all scorers with 29 points, the highest individual scoring tally in the women’s tournament so far, and eight rebounds. Natalie Stafford added 18.
Understandably, Leedham looked emotionally drained afterwards but was adamant that GB will finish on a high.
“It was a good game. They’re really tough and strong but it’s a tough loss. It’s kind of hard for us because we want to win so hard especially for the fans but they are a really good team and we have to be proud of ourselves.
“We have got one game left and we’re going to get that win.”
Despite defeat for coach Tom Maher, a man who has a huge amount of Olympic experience, he was proud of the effort and passion his side displayed.
“We came here to be a respected basketball team, to say that Great Britain now plays basketball and I thought we played really hard.
“France is always a top team, so for us to be able to play at the Olympics in overtime and have a top player to beat us with two tough shots, it would be lacking perhaps a degree of sensibility for me to say that it was a terrible loss because I think my players played really well.”
Did you catch the game? Thoughts?
Image Credit: Mansoor Ahmed Photography
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The team played exceptionally well and has showed how the women’s game, at this level, has come on in leaps and bounds.
Heartbreaker. Those two 3′s from the french player, especially the 2nd one were unblieveable! Hopefully, the girls can finish with a win next time out.
Last Wednesday I was in the Basketball Arena at the Olympic Park cheering on the Great Britain women’s team narrowly fail to record an historic win against Russia. On Thursday night and Friday night I was screaming at my television set extolling our men and women once again as they just failed to beat Spain and France. So, I can hardly be accused of being a GB hater.
In amongst my delight about the achievements of the two GB teams I have been upset by the statements by senior British Basketball officials indicating that this is the first time that Great Britain teams have competed in the Olympic Games.
Now I would accept that this is the first time that we have appeared in the final stages but let’s be clear we didn’t qualify. We gained a place because we are hosting the Games and proved ourselves worthy of a place by our performances in the European Championships. This in itself was a wonderful achievement but 2012 is not the first time Great Britain has participated in the Olympic Games.
On a personal level I ask myself where I was in the early summer of 1988. I might be getting old but I recall that I was with a Great Britain team in Malaysia and Indonesia. When non-basketball people ask me what this was all about I explain that it was like the heats of an athletics race with the winners qualifying for the Final tournament in Seoul. No we didn’t qualify but we tried to represent our country with pride and to the best of our ability and to ignore our efforts and those of previous Great Britain teams is disparaging and insulting to players, coaches and managers alike.
I have no idea why the current British officials have chosen to pursue the course they have. Admittedly the achievements of the current Great Britain teams have far exceeded previous achievements but they have enjoyed far more financial and technical support. Surely previous teams should be acknowledged and recognised if only as pioneers and an indication of how our sport has progressed. I’m sure there is a good reason why this hasn’t been done but this has left a group of people very hurt because of the lack of recognition.
John Collins
Former coach of a rag-tag team who proudly wore red, white and blue
I fully understand John’s coments re the non-recognition of past teams,
I am not sure if heats or qualification rounds that take place prior to the Olympic games can be deemed as being part of the Olympic Games. Are they not qualifications to actually take part in the Olympic Games?
For example, no one would suggest that the European Championships were part of the Olympic Games (would they?). They are not organised by the IOC.
The Olympic Games is universally recognised as The Olympic Games when and where they take place, Seoul, China, Great Britain, etc.
Certainly it woujld be nice if our GB officials did recognise past achievements where our teams were representing Great Britain.
Certainly also the GB teams have made great progress. Pity that GB mens team lost so miserably to Australia, which shows how much work and development still needs to be done.
The womens team set a great example for the mens team to follow.