England U16s Beat Greece to Claim First Win in Second Round

By Bradley Gains on August 11, 2015

England under-16’s claimed their first win in the Second Round at the European Championships after beating Greece 60-50 in Lithuania, on Tuesday.

Alan Keane’s side powered clear in the third to set the platform for their first on-court victory in their Division A campaign as they improve to a 1-3 record in Group E.

Cameron Bett produced an impressive display to lead his side with 20 points while Jacob Round added 12 points and Nelson Boachie-Yiadom collected a mammoth 16 rebounds to go with his nine points and six blocks.

An 8-2 start gave Greece the early initiative before Boachie-Yiadom netted from beyond the arc. The next five points went to Greece and they would lead 13-7 at the end of the first.

Bett opened his scoring account at the start of the second before Round added a 3-pointer to see England close within two.

They soon earned their first lead of the game when Bett added two triples of his own back-to-back. England had to work to keep their advantage and the final four points saw them lead 26-24 at half-time.

England moved clear in the third as a 3-pointer from Jacob Iwowo started a 10-0 run before Bett and Round also later netted from beyond the arc to make it 42-28 in their favour.

They failed to add to their tally for the final two minutes of the quarter but still had a double-digit cushion as they headed into the fourth up 12 at 42-30.

Greece mounted their first comeback attempt with the opening eight points of the final period before Boachie-Yiadom ended England’s seven-minute drought across the quarter breaks.

Bett went coast-to-coast through traffic to convert an and-1 before adding another score to make it 49-38 with less than four minutes remaining.

Once again, Greece closed in with a mini 6-0 burst before Ashley Briggs scored following an important offensive rebound to keep them at bay.

A Greek triple quickly re-applied the pressure approaching the final minute but Round stepped up by drawing contact on his way to converting a pivotal and-1 to effectively ice the game.

England were then able to close the game out in the final stages with Kayiem Cleary scoring as well as Bett taking his tally to the 20-point mark with four points from the line.

After a slow start, England managed to hold their opponents to just 24% shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle 65-47.

Box score.

The under-18’s play their final Second Round game against Spain tomorrow at 5pm (UK time).

Watch the full-game replay below:

Image credit: FIBA Europe

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