GB Senior Women avenge Estonia loss with dominant victory

Image Credit: Ahmedphotos

Great Britain’s Senior Women cruised to a 100-45 victory over Estonia on Thursday evening in their EuroBasket Women 2023 qualifier at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester.

GB avenged their upset three-point defeat to the Estonians in the November window, leaving no questions of their ability when on form as they jumped out to a 12-3 lead and never looked back to win by 55.

Temi Fagbenle was unstoppable inside on her way to 23 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, Holly Winterburn had 12 points and 7 steals, Chantelle Handy had 11, while Hannah Robb had her best outing in a GB jersey with 10 points.

All 12 GB players scored. Box score.

Estonia – who battled foul trouble throughout – were led by 11 points and 12 rebounds from Annika Koster.

All eyes now move to Portugal on Sunday evening, also at home, which is a must-win to control the controllable and give them the best chance of still qualifying for EuroBasket Women.

Qualification update

Greece have qualified as group winners, despite losing by six against Portugal – who would have been eliminated with a loss following GB’s victory.

By claiming the head-to-head, GB ensured that Estonia will finish bottom, meaning results against them do not count towards the runners-up ranking – this is because some groups only have three teams, so results against the fourth-placed teams are removed.

So, GB play Portugal in a straight shootout for second spot. If they win, they will have a 3-3 overall record, which becomes 2-2 when the Estonia results are taken away – and they need to finish as one of the best four ranked runners-up in order to qualify.

The runners-up in groups that initially included Russia and Belarus cannot qualify and Israel are guaranteed to finish second, but have already qualified as co-hosts. That means it’s down to just seven groups of which four can qualify.

GB currently have a points difference of -7 in results against Portugal/Greece so would add to this by beating Portugal. They need to better runners-up from three other groups.

Hungary 2-2 (+82) – they should advance, barring a shock loss to Romania
Slovakia 1-2 (-4) – likely to advance as they take on Luxembourg
GB 1-2 (-7) – a narrow win would leave them looking over their shoulders
Poland 1-2 (-14) – Slovenia finish 2nd with a win and are already qualified as hosts
Germany 1-2 (-15) / BIH 1-2 (-73) – Bosnia need a huge win just to finish second
Lithuania 1-2 (-16) / Ukraine 1-2 (-21) – they go head-to-head to decide second spot
Croatia 2-2 (-16) – they cannot add to their ranking, and cannot finish above GB

Poland, Germany and Lithuania (possibly Ukraine with a big win) are the dangers to GB (if they win, of course). For reference, Germany beat Bosnia and Herzegovina by 39 in their previous meeting and Lithuania beat Ukraine by 19, while GB edged out Portugal by 7 in overtime. Strap yourselves in on Sunday.

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