GB Senior Women Suffer Opening Loss to France

By Sam Neter on May 14, 2015

Great Britain Senior Women head coach Peter Buckle isn’t reading too much into the outcome of his team’s first preparation game of the summer after watching his side fall 81-54 to France in Roanne.

The 2012 Olympic and EuroBasket Women 2013 silver medallists proved to be a tough opening opponent as GB’s involvement in the Lyon Tournament got underway against one of the best teams in the world.

“That’s why we are here – to play against the very best and of course it was tough,” he conceded.

“Having said that, I thought there were plenty of upsides and good learning from that game.

“We also set it against the context of being behind in our preparation because of the illness that was in the camp since we started.

“I though Eilidh (Simpson) had a good game and shot the ball well from outside, while Rachael (Vanderwal) continued her good form and we got almost 17 pretty good minutes out of Erin (McGarrachan).

“Now we just have to keep building and we have another two games over the weekend to do exactly that,” added Buckle.

Without EuroBasket Women 2013 duo Ella Clark and Georgia Jones, as well as Hannah Peacock who didn’t travel either, GB were also without the vital experience of Azania Stewart who didn’t suit up for the contest.

Temi Fagbenle had taken the honour of scoring not only the first basket of the game, but the maiden bucket of this summer’s programme as GB posted a lively start – although it was tempered by Stef Collins picking up three fouls in the first five minutes.

By the end of the opening period France had moved 20-12 in front, but Coach Buckle had met his objective of handing minutes to almost his entire roster.

Some of GB’s best work came courtesy of a scorching start to the second quarter when they outscored the home side with a 13-4 burst that culminated in Chantelle Handy nailing a three-pointer to put her team ahead by a point.

However, France shifted through the gears and capitalised on an abundance of transition scores to build a 44-33 advantage at the interval.

Threatening to pull away in the third period, Les Bleues were looking powerful, but GB responded with a number of exciting contributions off the bench.

Firstly Erin McGarrachan executed a nice play and then Eilidh Simpson drained a downtown effort to keep GB in contention as they headed into the last quarter 63-48 behind.

France then turned the defensive screw in the last ten minutes to extend their lead, but there was an encouraging amount of quality court time for the likes of rising star Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott, while fellow U20 team-mate Harriet Ottewill-Soulsby also stepped out.

Fabgenle and Vanderwal combined for 25 points, with the former also adding an impressive eight rebounds.

Meanwhile Simpson showed her threat from long-distance after sinking a trio of shots from behind the three-point line.

GB will play Slovak Republic tomorrow in the second game of the tournament in a 17.30 tip-off (UK time).

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