GB Women Finish Eurobasket With Loss to Russia

GB women finished their Eurobasket campaign with another tough loss, going down to Russia 62-59 on Monday.

Against a nation who are ranked second in the world and had started the tournament as one of the favourites, Britain led by as many as 15 points in the first half and held a ten point lead going into the final five minutes of the game but couldn’t hold on as Russia went on a 17-2 run to seal the victory.

GB coach Tom Maher was frustrated with the loss:

“It was disappointing, but it was what it was, we didn’t do enough to win. We don’t have the experience and the poise to win games like this down the stretch, but we’ll only get that by playing in these type of games.

“When you’re totally outmatched in the paint, but are eight up with four to play, that has to be a positive. But from there on, we couldn’t get a decent shot up.”

With Britain now going home, Maher remained positive about their performances for the whole tournament:

“I’m proud of the team, and we’d have taken this coming into the championships. But we coughed up two games we should have won, against Lithuania and Russia, and we need to learn from that before the Olympics next year.”

GB centre, Azania Stewart admitted that it was frustrating to lose another close game, but also looked on the positive side:

“I guess it’s a learning curve but we all made crucial mistakes. It would have been nice to end the tournament with a win. We needed to keep making plays in the fourth period, and we couldn’t quite get it down at the crucial time.

“But, we’ve proved that we don’t give up. We frustrated them and we didn’t go down without a fight.”

Kim Butler led GB with 15 points and six rebounds, dominating the game in the first period, while Natalie Stafford was 10/10 at the line to finish with 14 points and three steals. Jo Leedham finished with 11 points and eight rebounds, while Julie Page added 7 pointd and 8 rebounds.

Russia were led by 16 points from Elena Danilochkina.

For the full play by play, boxscore and statistics click here.

Image Credit: Mansoor Ahmed Photography