GB Women Go 0-2 Against Croatia

Great Britain women finished their two game away series against Croatia without a victory, but showed significant improvement over the two days.

On Monday evening Croatia steamrolled over the GB side with an 81-59 victory. After the game, head coach Tom Maher admitted it was going to take the team a while to make the transition to a competitive environment:

“We always knew it was going to be tough moving from the safe environment of training camp, where you can immediately correct mistakes, to a game where you have to get things right.

“We have to accept that we’ll need a few games to make the transition.”

Jo Leedham led GB with with 15 points and 6 rebounds whilst Natalie Stafford added 13.

On Tuesday, Maher’s words rang true as his team ran the Croatians much closer but ultimately came up short 77-74 after a last second three-point attempt from Natalie Stafford fell short.

Azania Stewart led GB with 14 points and after the game said:

“We wanted to concentrate more on the things we didn’t do yesterday, so that was communication and working on our defence.

“As a team we did really well. We’re just making strides forward.”

Jo Leedham and Temi Fagbenle finished with 13 points apiece along with five and four rebounds respectively, while Natalie Stafford recorded 12 points, five rebounds and five assists. Stef Collins pulled down a team high nine rebounds and Julie Page fell just short of a double double with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Belgium is the next destination for the side with a four-nation tournament this weekend that tips off with GB facing Ukraine on Friday.

Thoughts?