GB Women Suffer Heartbreaking Loss to France

Great Britain’s women suffered a heartbreaking 80-77 overtime loss, at the hands of France at the Olympic Basketball Arena on Friday night.

With the score level at 77 and just a few seconds remaining France’s Celine Dumerc drained a clutch triple to seal the win. With 0.2 seconds remaining, Chantelle Handy attempted to match the three but unfortunately couldn’t get the shot off before the buzzer.

GB, who had already been eliminted earlier in the day and were playing for nothing but bride, now fall to 0-4 in Group B with one game remaining.

Jo Leedham led all scorers with 29 points, the highest individual scoring tally in the women’s tournament so far, and eight rebounds. Natalie Stafford added 18.

Understandably, Leedham looked emotionally drained afterwards but was adamant that GB will finish on a high.

“It was a good game. They’re really tough and strong but it’s a tough loss. It’s kind of hard for us because we want to win so hard especially for the fans but they are a really good team and we have to be proud of ourselves.

“We have got one game left and we’re going to get that win.”

Despite defeat for coach Tom Maher, a man who has a huge amount of Olympic experience, he was proud of the effort and passion his side displayed.

“We came here to be a respected basketball team, to say that Great Britain now plays basketball and I thought we played really hard.

“France is always a top team, so for us to be able to play at the Olympics in overtime and have a top player to beat us with two tough shots, it would be lacking perhaps a degree of sensibility for me to say that it was a terrible loss because I think my players played really well.”

Did you catch the game? Thoughts?

Image Credit: Mansoor Ahmed Photography