GB Notch First Eurobasket Victory, Beat Portugal

Great Britain secured their first ever Eurobasket victory, beating Portugal 85-73 on Sunday afternoon, and with it kept their slim hopes of advancing to the second round alive.

Luol Deng was dominant once again, finishing with a 31 point-10 rebound double double, whilst Mike Lenzly had 17 and Nate Reinking added 9.

Head coach Chris Finch was extremely pleased with the win:

“First I’d like to congratulate our guys for our first win at EuroBasket. It was a small victory, but a meaningful one. Portugal are an emotional team, and we were concerned about them as they can really get going. Guarding the  three point line was important, but offensively we were much better.

“We moved the ball well, and Luol was the catalyst for that. Everyone will look at his 31 points, but he had four assists and when he played like that he is at his best. Having Robert Archibald back helped, and our younger guys also played well which we needed them to do this afternoon.”

Lenzly’s 17 points are the most he has scored this campaign for GB and he was pleased with the win:

“It was a great game for our side to get a win. It was a hard fought game, we tried to pressure the ball and speed up the tempo. I think we accomplished that in the first half. Luol did what he always does and that was a good win for us today.”

Full box score, play by play and statistics available here.

Check out what Mike Lenzly and Chris Finch had to say after their win in the post-game press conference video below:

Other Results in Group A

Turkey 83 – 84 Poland
Poland produced one of the upsets of the tournament so far after beating Turkey by just one point. Dardan Berisha had 21 to lead Poland, including the game-winning jumpshot with 12 seconds left, whilst the young Enes Kanter had his best game of the tournament so far with 19 points. Full box score play by play and statistics available here.

Spain 91 – 79 Lithuania
In one of the most anticipated match-ups so far in Group A, it proved to be no contest as Spain dominated Lithuania from start to finish to win by 12. Navarro had 22 to lead Spain, with Serge Ibaka added 15 and 9. Young Toronto Raptors draft pick Jonas Valanciunas had 13 points in 16 minutes to lead Lithuania. Box score play by play and statistics available here.

Standings in Group A

1. Spain 4/0
2. Lithuania 3/1
3. Turkey 2/2
4. Poland 2/2
5. Great Britain 1/3
6. Portugal 0/4

Notes

• GB Starters: Ogo Adegboye, Nate Reinking, Luol Deng, Dan Clark, Joel Freeland
• For those that watched the game today, you witnessed history. Remember that! Great for the team (and the fans) to finally be getting that first ‘W’.
• Poland upsetting Turkey continued to keep GB’s very slim hopes of advancing alive.
• Luol Deng is currently leading the competition in scoring at 23.8 per game.

Did you catch the game? Thoughts?

Image credit: Mansoor Ahmed