GB push Serbia before faltering down the stretch

Image Credit: GB Basketball

Great Britain Senior Men put up a valiant effort before falling 101-83 to Serbia on Monday afternoon in Belgrade to round out the FIBA World Cup qualifying campaign.

Going in as overwhelming underdogs and looking to play spoiler with Serbia needing a win to punch their ticket to the World Cup, GB were tied with the Serbs early in the third quarter, before the home side turned up the heat to pull away.

With GB already having been ruled out of qualifying, Head Coach Marc Steutel is using the window to give young talent and new faces an opportunity and they have grasped it with both hands as 19 year old Quinn Ellis starred on his way to a game-high 22 points, with Amin Adamu adding 14 and new captain Carl Wheatle having 16.

“I’m exceptionally proud,” Steutel said after the game. “We had 5 players in our group who have earned their first international cap in this window, and probably an extra 2-3 players who had just 1 or 2 caps gained in the last window, so it was a really new group for us.

“We’ve had a bit of an evolution in our group so I’m exceptionally proud of the effort, the application and being in an environment as challenging as here in Belgrade, against a team with that level of experience and some Euroleague talent, I’m proud of our team, the way that we fought, the way we tried to play the style of basketball we want to play to be successful at this level.

“Ultimately, I think our guys will learn from the experience, credit to Serbia on how they managed the game, particularly in the second half when they found solutions to our defence and shot the ball really well from the three point, so credit to Serbia.

“As the coach of a young, developing Great Britain team, I’m exceptionally proud of my team tonight and excited for what the future holds for us.”

Aleksa Avramovic led Serbia with 20 points.

Box score.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix