GB Women Suffer Defeat in Opener Against Belarus

By Joe Pinchin | @joepinchin

Great Britain opened their first ever EuroBasket finals campaign with a 55-40 loss today after taking on world number four Belarus, in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Great Britain were led by Kim Butler’s 8 points and 6 rebounds whilst Azania Stewart added 7 and Chantelle Handy 6 points. Katsiaryna Snytsina and Anastasiya Verameyenka both had 10 points a piece for Belarus.

GB women head coach Tom Maher remained positive and was pleased with his team’s performance:

“I can’t be upset because we worked hard and that is the important thing. We’ve never played against sides of this level before certainly not in official competition, so I‘m happy with our performance. We tried hard but we’re not yet at the level where we can expect to beat teams at Belarus’ level yet.”

Centre Julie Page was part of a GB defence which held the World Championship semi-finalists to 33 percent floor shooting, and forced them into 22 turnovers, and the veteran was pleased with their performance:

“It was our first major finals game in Europe for GB and we worked really hard and showed people that we can play at this level. We talked before the game about playing tough defence, and I think we did that; we had energy and worked as a team to help each other out.

“We forced them into 22 turnovers which is encouraging, and we just need to keep on working hard.”

Both teams struggled to convert in the opening stanza, but Belarus were able to take a narrow lead into the first break leading 14-11 after Stef Collins was forced to sit 5 minutes in leading to Belarus capitalising on the weaker guard front from GB.

GB’s foul troubles continued as Stef Collins picked up her third foul two minutes into the second period. Tom Maher opted for a 3 guard front but Belarus’ Anufryienka sparked a 9-0 run, forcing GB to call a time out. Despite struggles on the defensive glass leading to second chances for Belarus, the aggressive play out of the timeout from Julie Page cut into the lead, 27-18. More fouls from GB led to four straight free throws for Belarus to end the quarter and GB facing a 31-20 deficit going into the half.

A big block from Julie Page opened the third quarter and Stef Collins, back on the floor, created good options for Great Britain but Tom Maher’s side were still not able to convert.

Belarus picked GB’s defensive pressure apart to get easy lay ups and open jump shots to push the lead up to 15 half way through the quarter, 40-25. The lead would have ballooned further if it were not for Belarus shooting a very poor percentage. A 14-8 quarter resulted in Belarus going into the final period up 45-28.

Ros Mason brought in some energy off the bench to open the fourth quarter. Mason knocked down a couple of free throws and Collins drained a long two before Belarus’ Natallia Marchanka held the ball at the top of the half. Once Belarus had settled, they continued to execute in the half court to maintain their lead around 15 points as time winded down.

Full stats and play by play are available here.

Great Britain Women’s EuroBasket campaign continues as they look to pick up a win against the Czech Republic tomorrow at 7.30pm.

Notes

• Without Stef Collins on the floor, GB looked rattled. Offensive sets and press breaks were not run as smoothly leading to tough shots and turnovers for Maher’s side.

• Great Britain’s intensity on defence led to tough shots from Belarus but GB were not able to box out effectively enough to get stops.

• GB shot just 25.9% from the floor and did not make a 3 point shot in the game.

• Belarus actually had more turnovers than GB (22-20).

Did you watch the game? What did you think?