GB Women Lose Opener Against Germany

The GB women lost their opener of the British Basketball Invitational Tournament at Surrey Sports Park, Guildford, going down to Germany 70-60 on Thursday afternoon.

Tom Maher’s team were led by Lauren Thomas-Johnson who finished with 12 points and three rebounds, while team mate Steph Gandy added 11 points and four boards, and Kim Butler had 10 rebounds to go with her seven points (full stats available here).

Anne Breitreiner was led the Germans with 23 points, whilst Sarah Austmann added 10 points and five boards.

Standard Life GB head coach, Maher wasn’t too disappointed with the result:

“We were beaten by the better team but there’s a point to these games, it’s about seeing who we are and what we need to do better. We want to win, but today wasn’t the marker of whether we’ll be a successful team.

“Defensively we were poor and not to the level we need, but we are technically better than when we started last year which is a positive. We missed Jo Leedham, and although it’s disappointing we have to move on. You make mistakes, and if you can move on from them, you’re a winner.”

Standard Life GB guard Natalie Stafford is also looking for an improvement from the team:

“I thought we were okay in parts, but obviously it wasn’t our best game. We came out strong, then we did a few things wrong and struggled to get back in the game.

“The first eight points of the game were scored off our transition, but we couldn’t keep that going. We were better than our first game last year and we know we can do better than that.”

The British Basketball Invitational Tournament continues on Friday afternoon at Surrey Sports Park. The action starts at 14:30 when Latvia and Germany match up before the Standard Life GB women face Cuba at 19:00. Tickets are available here.