GB Senior Men Fall to Portugal in Prep Opener

The Great Britain Senior Men were unable to get their 2016 campaign off to a winning start with a 72-68 loss to hosts Portugal on Friday evening in Coimbra, Portugal.

Kieron Achara led GB with 13 points, Ben Mockford had 11 and Will Saunders joined them in double figures with 10 points but it wasn’t enough to give GB a victory to open the summer.

Robert Gilchrist and Alex Young added 9 each, while Teddy Okereafor finished with 4 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

A slow start saw GB fall behind, but a dominant second quarter saw them storm right back into the game, taking the lead on an Eric Boateng dunk early in the period. GB started to find the bottom of the net, with three consecutive three pointers dropping from Will Saunders and Ben Mockford giving GB their largest lead of the game at 9.

Portugal fought back, knocking down a three to beat the halftime buzzer and bringing themselves within 3 at the break. Portugal carried that momentum into the second half, regaining the lead early in the third, and fighting off any surge from GB and securing a 4 point lead heading into the final period.

A layup from Mockford brought GB within 1, 57-56, with a little over five minutes to play, but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the way, unable to capitalise at key moments.

Andrew Lawrence, Dan Clark, Ben Gordon and Gabe Olaseni did not play for GB, but are expected to see action tomorrow.

Box score.

GB return to action on Saturday night when they face Germany at the same venue, at the same time (8:30pm tip).

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