GB Senior Women Rout FYR Macedonia

Great Britain’s Senior Women have continued their perfect start to the EuroBasket Women 2015 2nd Qualification Round, after completing a scintillating 78-53 success on the road against FYR of Macedonia.

In the first of three away fixtures, there was a sense of déjà vu as Great Britain enjoyed the same brilliant start in Kavadarci which was reminiscent of their opening encounter against Belgium.

It was the versatile Steph Gandy who put helped to establish the first double-figure lead of the night at 21-11, as Great Britain stamped their authority on the contest from the outset to enable them to jump straight into the box-seat.

They then strengthened their grip on proceedings in front of a particularly partisan and raucous home crowd by recording a devastating run at the start of the second period which took the game away from the hosts. Initiated by Temi Fagbenle who eventually amassed an impressive 15 points, Great Britain racked up a quite stunning 16-0 tear to move 39-13 ahead after Stef Collins converted a big three-pointer.

Having built a commanding 39-19 advantage at the break, Great Britain had done much of the hard work and GB Head Coach Peter Buckle was left especially delighted at his team’s early efforts.

He explained, “I think that our strong start at the beginning of the game, which we were then able to replicate at the beginning of the second quarter was key for us. What was particularly pleasing is that everybody contributed. We were also able to rotate fully and give everyone some minutes which is important with these games coming thick and fast.”

While it was perhaps to be expected that FYR of Macedonia would re-group and make adjustments at half-time to stop the bleeding, they never seriously threatened Great Britain’s supremacy. In fact, the visitors increased their stranglehold after Eilidh Simpson converted from behind the three-point line to make it 54-22, before strolling to victory.

Coach Buckle was left unconcerned by the home team’s second-half challenge and was simply delighted with the way his players applied themselves throughout. “While I was very happy with our first-half, I think it was inevitable they would put up a better show after half-time,” conceded the play-caller.

“It was always going to be a different game in the second half, but we did a good job overall and I am delighted to get another win. We now move on to Lithuania who are a quality team and we know they will be very well prepared, but so will we.”

Meanwhile, flowing with confidence from her star role during last Sunday, playmaker Rachael Vanderwal continued to orchestrate the plays and impressed by handing out a super seven assists. Azania Stewart also shone brightly with 11 rebounds and four assists, while there was an impressive 11 points for Lauren Thomas-Johnson and 10 for Eilidh Simpson. Overall, GB shot 48.4% from the court.

Box score.

Great Britain will play Lithuania in Kedainai on Sunday (1600 BST) with both teams unbeaten after their opening two games in Group B. Lithuania beat Belgium 77-67 in Antwerp to complete two wins out of two as well.

After their meeting with the Lithuanians in the Kedainai Arena, GB will travel to Antwerp to face Belgium in seven days’ time to complete their three game trip on the road. They then face their two remaining home games at the University of Worcester Arena against F.Y.R. of Macedonia (Sunday June 22nd, 2pm) and against Lithuania (Wednesday June 25th, 7pm).