GB Futures Cruise Past Lithuania

Great Britain Futures secured their first official win over Lithuania on Friday evening, cruising to a 74-62 victory at Surrey Sports Park, Guilford.

GB’s performance was greatly improved from the 5 quarter scrimmage the night before, playing much better defensively, as all players look to impress the coaching staff enough to get a shot at senior men’s training camp.

Coach Paul Mokeski’s squad led by as many as 19, and saw an impressive all around performance from Matthew Bryan-Amaning (pictured) who finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and a blocked shot. He said after the game they will be looking to close the series with another win on Saturday night:

“It was a great win tonight, we came out tough. We executed a lot better and played defence much better than last night.

“After half time we restricted them which was key and it was good for most of the players to get good court time. We’ve got a lot of confidence heading to tomorrow’s game.”

Kyle Johnson added 15 points and 5 rebounds, whilst Chris Ayer had 9 points, 7 boards, Ovie Soko had 9 points and Devon van Oostrum had 9 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Martynas Paliukėnas had 11 points to lead Lithuania, Darius Tarvydas added 10 to join him as the only other player in double figures, whilst Saulius Kulvietis and Paulius Dambrauskas finished with 9 each. Mindaugas Kupsas added 10 rebounds to go along with his 6 points.

Notes

• Ashley Hamilton sat out today after sustaining an injury (groin) in Thursday night’s scrimmage. Will be looking to play tomorrow. Andrew Lawrence remains sidelined and will be looking to make his debut Saturday night as well, whilst Shane Walker also sat out.
• Devon van Oostrum will not be playing in Saturday’s game due to flying out to Italy for adidas EUROCAMP.
• Matthew Bryan-Amaning finished with 4 dunks and a couple of no-look assists, and Ovie Soko had a nice one hander on the break.
• Check out the play of the day here.
• GB struggled on the glass again, with Lithuania getting a number of offensive rebounds.
• DVO received a (questionable) technical foul, to add to the one he received yesterday.
• Kyle Johnson did work again, letting the game come to him and knocking down shots.
• It was the first 5 minutes of the third quarter that GB pulled away, led by MBA they stretched the lead to 19, before Lithuania responded with their own run to finish the quarter down 10.
• All stats listed above (except for scoring) are unofficial.

Buy tickets for Saturday’s game here.