GB Senior Women Downed by Latvia in Second Outing

Great Britain were beaten 67-58 by Latvia in their second contest at EuroBasket Women 2015 in Szombathely.

Sporting protective goggles, Temi Fagbenle returned to the team with a bang after her eye injury to score a terrific 22 points, but Latvia had too much for Great Britain as they took control either side of the break to take victory.

Great Britain gave up 23 points during the third quarter having held Latvia to just 26 in the whole of the first-half and that proved decisive.

Fagbenle had wasted little time in underlining her influence as she scored the first four points of the contest and Rachael Vanderwal built on that great work with a big triple help put GB 10-7 in front.

Steph Gandy then came into the game and her energy kept GB in the ascendency along with more great work from Fagbenle, as they kept pace with Latvia to share the honours 20-20 by the end of the opening period.

After the free-flowing first ten minutes, defence then became king, with GB restricting Latvia to just a single score in five minutes. Things then improved further when Stef Collins hit a three from the corner with a hand in her face, to put GB 27-22 ahead.

However, Latvia came alive and went onto the front foot with a blistering 21-4 run either side of half-time as veteran duo Anete Jekabsone and Gunta Basko-Melnbarde made successive triples to put them 43-31 in front.

They GB defence which had contained their opponents so well for the first twenty minutes struggled to cope with Latvia moving up a gear and found themselves trailing 49-38 heading into the last ten minutes.

Efforts to launch a comeback were hampered by Azania Stewart fouling out and while GB briefly threatened to put Latvia under pressure down the stretch, they were unable to recover from their disappointing third quarter.

Meanwhile Fagbenle was taking little satisfaction from her own dazzling display after the game.

She said, “A loss is a loss and it’s hard to be satisfied with anything that you have done when you haven’t won the game.

“We were just two different teams and when they put their foot down, we just couldn’t stop it defensively.

“We have to focus on the first half, because that was so positive and really showed what we are actually capable of.

“I think we just need to be a little more consistent.”

Guard Rachael Vanderwal added, “We have two more games and Stef [Collins] reminded us of that in the huddle straight after the game.

“We are remaining positive, because we finally showed the kind of play that has previously made GB successful at the event during the first twenty minutes and we have to continue in that vein.”

You can view the full box score statistics here.

Image Credit: Ahmedphotos