GB Fall to Spain in Fourth Quarter

By Sam Neter on August 29, 2013

Great Britain put in the best performance of their preparation games so far, but ultimately lost 80-67 to Spain in Murcia on Wednesday night, stretching their losing streak to five games.

Head coach Joe Prunty’s side ran the Olympic silver medalists close, being tied up at halftime and trailing just five heading into the fourth quarter, but a 14-0 run by Spain to begin the period put the game out of reach.

“There was a lot I liked,” said Prunty. “There was just one stretch when we struggled late in the third and early in the fourth, and a run we didn’t answer. But I thought we did a much better job defensively. The assists aren’t where we want them to be but I still thought we moved the ball better.”

Kyle Johnson had a game-high 15 points, Myles Hesson had 9 points and 10 rebounds, whilst Eric Boateng added 9 points and 9 rebounds of his own.

“We need everybody to play well,” Prunty added. “I thought Kyle was solid. I thought Myles Hesson did a great job; he was 4/10 and a couple of his two-point shots he missed were put backs. Ogo Adegboye was also great. You can pick out a lot of people who gave us great contributions. But we need everybody firing on all cylinders.”

An early 7-0 run from GB proved to be the first of their five leads during a thrilling first half that saw the momentum shift constantly. Johnson provided an offensive spark and London-born centre, Boateng, was a tower of strength in the middle for GB.

With Arbroath-born forward Gareth Murray handed a first start, and Andrew Lawrence returning, GB found ways to unsettle a team laden with stars from the NBA and Euroleague. They were behind 21-20 at the end of the first quarter but did not settle for falling away.

Justin Robinson converted a three-point play and Myles Hesson, the young German-based forward, made his mark. With Johnson continuing to seize his opportunities, the score was level at 35-35 at half-time.

Just as at the Olympics last summer, when the eventual runners-up had to work to snare a narrow win, Spain were under pressure. But they found an extra gear in Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio, who scored a team-best 14 points and sparked a decisive 14-6 run early in the third period to break GB’s resistance for good.

And although the visitors finished with a flourish, a spurt of 14 unanswered points had put the Spanish beyond reach.

Drew Sullivan scored five points in his 100th international appearance.

The teams meet again on Thursday (9pm UK time tip) in what will be their final warm-up before both sides head to Slovenia for EuroBasket 2013 which begins next week. GB will be looking for a win to improve their warm-up games record to 2-5.

Box score.

Thoughts?

Image Credit: FEB

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