GB 3-0 IN SARAJEVO

 

(Image taken from Gameon GB)

Well, no rest for the wicked, or for the rest of us. It was seemingly hardly any time at all since I'd gotten back from Newcastle that GB team were in action again. This time around Finch's guys were on a court in Sarajevo for their third Eurobasket Division A qualifier. This time around Bosnia were the opponents and on paper it looked relatively straightforward. The hosts hadn't made it to Eurobasket itself since '05 and though we had history against them from the '08 Division A campaign during which they'd beaten us on home turf, the fact is that on that occasion we'd already banked a spot in Poland. Now that we had everything to play for, this game should be ours - even if we did have to watch on a dodgy Bosnian feed complete with a chat window filled with slightly mental Bosnians(and a relatively sane Macedonian).

Well GB may have opened the scoring 2-0 with 9:35 left in the 1st quarter but the Bosnians were always going to give us a battle on their own turf. In fact after the first couple of minutes they pretty much took over - seriously taking us to the cleaners in what looked to be our worst display for ages. We were down 20-9 with 4:09 left in the quarter before a good timeout talk from Finichy took effect and then we were raining threes on the Bosnians - the perfect way to get us back into the match. A buzzer beating layup then allowed us to tie the game at 24. US-raised Henry Domercant was leading the Bosnians with 7 points and Nate Reinking was the early man on form for us on 6 points.

The Bosnians hit the opening bucket of the 2nd quarter but the game fell into a scoring slump for a bit after that and what points there were came our way, allowing us to lead 29-26 with 8:02 left in the half. The Bosnians certainly weren't done though and a couple of three pointers allowed the Bosnian fans to gloat for a bit. And yet more GB three pointers came raining in just when we needed them - the guys were certainly being given a rough ride but it didn't look to be anything we couldn't handle at that point. However in the last minute of the half we just let them bury us. Ratko Varda was running their show with 10 points by now and at 48-41 down we had work to do in the 2nd half.

In the 3rd quarter the Bosnians continued to smother our main men but GB still made inroads into the deficit to make sure that the seven point gap at half time was as god as it got for the home side. We came back to tie the game only for the Bosnians to rtake the lead but again, we had no intention of letting them run away. And yet we still managed to reel them in aghain and despite seemingly not firing on alll cylinders, retook the lead. That lead hit 62-59 with 1:59 left in the 3rd and we looked to be leading going into the final quarter until the Bosnians hit two free throws to tie the game at 64. Varda was still the Bosnia lead scorer on 16 points, Domercant on 12 and Kenan Bajramovic provided further backup on 10. For us, it was Dan Clark of all people who was taking care of business on 18 points.

The first minute of the 4th quarter was completely scoreless but it was GB that broke the deadlock before the Bosnians replied with a three pointer to take the lead. From there the Bosnians looked to bury us again and were leading 71-66 with 6:56 left in the game. GB eventually managed to tie the game with a three pointer and from there took the lead but the Bosnian still weren't done and game back to tie the game with the clock clicking down. Sunndenly GB surges into the lead...only for the Bosnians to rein us in for a three pointer and one of main guys to foul out. Yet despite everything we held on. Our big names were smothered but that just left the backup crew open and Clark went on to make his mark on British basketball history with 23 points. Reinking backed him up on 21 with Pops, though smothered still managing to grab 16 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out. The Bosnians were left to throw tomatoes in our direction. Sorry guys, we're not going away anytime soon.

Elsewhere, Ukraine faced Hungary in Lviv. The Ukranians looked to be running the show early on but the visitors came back to scrabble together a 21-20 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. The home side wasn't able to turn thins round particularly quickly either, and the game was tied at 40 at half time. Finally the Ukrainians stepped up a gear in the 3rd quarter though and despite a long mid quarter drought were able to build up a solid lead going into the 4th. From there the Hungarians looked unlikely to come back and led by Sirhiy Lischuk on 27 points, won 80-71 for what was their first win of the qualifying campaign though we'll have to wait and see if that'll count for anything in the long term.

So, GB have a 3-0 record now and that means that they rise to top Group B, ahead of Macedonia's 2-1 record. We're definately on course for Lithuania now, no questions asked.

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