GB Senior Men Drop Second Game to Hosts Poland

Image credit: Mansoor Ahmed/ahmedphotos

Great Britain Senior Men were beaten 86-76 by hosts, Poland in the second game of their prep tournament in Warsaw, on Friday.

Joe Prunty’s side saw off Hungary in the opener yesterday, but were unable to claim a second scalp in as many days.

The bright spells were there and GB will hope to stretch out those promising periods when it comes to crunch time in Istanbul next week.

Dan Clark top scored with 16 points, closely followed by Kyle Johnson’s 14-point effort from the bench, while Luke Nelson, Gabe Olaseni and Kieron Achara all added 10 points apiece.

Box score.

Murray netted an early three in a bright 9-4 start for GB before the hosts responded with a 10-2 reply. Nelson hit back-to-back triples to spark an 11-2 burst as GB opened up a 22-16 advantage.

Poland scored the final five points of the first quarter and a strong start to the second saw them move ahead by five points at 26-31. GB edged closer as Clark found his way to the line multiple times, but headed into the interval facing a seven-point deficit at 36-43.

The gap ballooned to 19 points as Poland went on a 16-2 tear early in the third. Johnson hit back with eight points in a 11-0 reply out of a timeout from GB and they headed into the final period down 67-55.

Naturalised American AJ Slaughter scored six straight to push the lead out to 17 points at 75-58, but GB produced a strong finish with consecutive treys from Clark and Achara reducing the final margin to a more respectable 10 points.

Carl Wheatle and Jules Dang Akodo DNP with GB facing Israel in their final prep game tomorrow.

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