GB OFF TO EUROBASKET
To be fair, this time around it did feel like it had been a long time since I had last hauled myself north in the name of GB basketball. Still, my travels were not done yet and neither was either GB team's mission accomplished. My final trip would take my to Liverpool for the 2nd double header of the campaign.
Slight problem, while I didn't need to spend two nights in Scouseland, I did have to get up at 6:30am on game day to be able to leave the flat before 8am to get an 8:23 am train out of St Davids. At least I got to the station in time to order up a bacon sandwich to eat on the train. Still, train arrived on time, I ordered up a coffee once I got on board and then it was a smooth run to Birmingham New Street(yes, New Street again). At New Street I couldn't see anywhere that would sell anything worth buying for the guy I was staying with on the transit concourse(and I was pretty sure they wouldn't let me into the main station) and opted for an earlier train than originally scheduled at the far end of the station - got myself on and it off further north.
Get off at Liverpool Lime Street just before 1, grab biscuits at M+S and then wait for my host for tonight. His name's Dave, a hardcore socialist but don't hold it against him, the fact that he was willing to put me up for tonight makes him a relatively nice hardcore socialist! Met him a couple of times in RL prior to this so I already knew he was relatively nice - not like I'd ask a scumbag to put me up for the night! Anyway, he got bonus points for hauling himself to Lime Street to meet me despite the fact that he could not drive. Then it was bus to his place, he fixed up a couple of cheese toasties and with no Whats Bev meet on the horizon, we just chilled out with his cat and talked about mutual friends, and I gave him a GB basketball 101 - even he thinks GB not getting automatic qualification for the 2012 Olympics is a farce!
Anyway, it was eventually time for me to get the bus out of there. Off at Debenhams in the middle of town. Follow signs to Albert Dock. Walk along Albert Dock, semi familiar territory after Dave gave me a tour there last year. The Echo Arena had to be somewhere - it certainly should be big enough to spot! Is it the big beastie behind the wheel? It 'is' the big beastie behind the wheel! Slight problem, my entrance was on the opposite side of the arena. Still I got in, found my seat
, went back to grab some water,seemingly got glared at as I started cheering for some reason. Still, place was about as full as it was going to be given that tip off for the women's game was 4:30pm on a Thursday.
Well, it had certainly been a long time since the GB women's team disappointed at the NIA. Since then they'd beaten Germany 72-63 in Wolfenbuttel. Then the Ukraine 57-49 in Guildford. Then somehow, they beat Slovakia, their vanquishers at the NIA 70-63 in Kosice! So, they entered the Echo on a 3-1 record and looked well on course for their Eurobasket next year in Poland. Their opponents for that night? Germany. A team they'd already seen off on their court. So, talk was a win would do it. And on this sort of amazing form, what had looked to be a miracle prior to this qualifying campaign started was now very much on.
Well the ladies certainly did not show much mercy in the early stages of the first quarter and hit a double digit lead before the opening period was halfway through! The Germans tried to come back into it but at the end of one this definitely looked to be our show. The early stages of the 2nd quarter were very low scoring but what buckets there were were mainly being hit by the GB girls and this already looked like it would be a cruise to glory. OK, so technically, when the dust settled after the first half, the Germans were still competitive but let's face it, we were winning 47-24 and Jo Leedham, our new woman in the WNBA was helping to run the show on 10 points.
Well the Germans had a reasonably good go at a comeback early in the 3rd and wound up cutting our lead significantly with just under six and a half minutes left in the period. Our girls quickly replied but the Germans then went on another run, cutting our lead further late on in the period. They would need to do better than that. With less than nine minutes left, the Germans cut our lead to twelve again. That was as close as it got in the latter stages. It was the turn of the women's team to make British basketball history and led by Jo Page on 18 points, they won 77-59. Amazing performance from a side that hadn't really been on my radar prior to this year.
Elsewhere, the Ukraine faced Slovakia in Kiev. The Slovakians had the early running but that wasn't anything the home side couldn't handle. The Slovakians weren't done yet though and retook the lead but still, the Ukrainians cruised to half time. And yet the game still wasn't over as Slovakia had another surge, this time going on to lead 46-40 with 6:58 left in the 3rd quarter. And yet Ukraine even managed to come back from that with a quarter to go. Finally in the 4th quarter the home side were able to hold on for a 70-68 win, led by Natalia Issachenko on 19 points. That left Great Britain top of Group D on a 4-1 record, ahead of nearest rivals Slovakia on 3-2 and even they couldn't catch our girls which meant that they were off to Poland for their first ever Eurobasket - an awesome achievement!
In the meantime, it was time for me to leave my seat in search of crew and food. I found a few What's Bevers who were of course happy with the women's result but weren't going to be hanging around after the men's game. As for food well...best I could come up with was a hot dog and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Less than ideal and the NIA puts them to shame on that front! Resisted temptation to grab a beer and eventually made my way back to my seat, my registered seat this time found given that they'd been shifted everyone to the middle for the women's game for the purposes of TV! Now though the arena was filling up.
Now it was the men's turn to take care of business and i theory the task was relatively straightforward. Beat a Bosnia side that they'd already seen off 84-80 in Sarejevo! That win put us 3-0 and that became 5-0 but those last two wins had been pretty messy and getting caned in Skopje can't have helped morale. Still the guys should be tougher than than and their story was still straightforward. Win and qualify for Eurobasket. The Bosnians on paper certainly weren't in a position to stop us but they were known to be stubborn gits and being Eastern Europeans, were probably honour-bound not to lose to us! Fine by me, still looked more than doable though.
Well we have have opened the scoring but not being able to hit your shots is going to get you punished and sure enough the visitors were happy to take advantage. As the quarter went on the malaise continued and the visitors led 10-7 with 4:12 left in the quarter though we eventually recovered to tie the game at 15 by the buzzer. Not good for the arena's blood pressure though. The Bosnians continued to give us a rough ride early on in the 2nd quarter but we seemed to be able to keep them at bay - just about. Late in the half and we finally came on song, leading 39-36 at half time with Luol Deng leading us on 18 points. The hope was that that was the worst over.
Again though our play was seriously messy and again the Bosnians were happy to take advantage, three pointers putting them in the lead. We managed to scrabble our way back from that though thanks partly to us getting our three point shooting together. The remainder of the period saw us pull away to a 64-57 lead at the end of the period. Boy did we choke in the 4th quarter though. OK to start with it looked as though we were taking care of business. But then our free throw shooting let us down yet again. And then they started hitting three pointers. Next thing we know there's 1:01 left in the game and we're 81-78 down. Finally we hit our free throws. We're still at their mercy though...but they miss a three pointer. Luol leads us on 35 points backed up by Pops Mensah-Bonsu on 26. In the meantime Ratko Varda was leading the Bosnians with 20 points. He'd fouled out though and we had successfully dodged bulleted to tie the game at 81 at the end of regulation. That meant overtime.
Well the early stages of overtime were again very tight and tense, ironically the only bucket in the opening minute was a GB free throw. The Bosnians replied by hitting a jumper to take an 83-82 lead with 3:36 left but we would not be denied this time and the guys finally started to act like this was their court. Our defence suddenly worked, no scratch that it made up for lost time as it was practically impregnable! We couldn't lose this now surely? We didn't and we wouldn't! Even my Dad has come to learn that the GB men's 2010 vintage does not make it easy for themselves. Yet we still used what voice we had left to celebrate. Luol finished on 38 points, Pops backed him up on 32, Nate Reinking had bailed us out from three point land yet again. We'd won 94-85.
Elsewhere, Hungary faced Ukraine in Solmbathley. The Ukrainians initially gave the home side some grief and led 14-13 at the end of the 1st quarter. The Hungarians replied by really stepping it up in the 2nd quarter though and had a solid lead by half time. They didn't go on to really dominate the rest of the match but they certainly continued to have the edge in the 3rd quarter and it would have taken a significant collapse for the game to turn around from there. Well the visitors attempted a comeback but led by Akos Keller on 17 points, Hungary won 83-75. That put Great Britain top of Group B on a 6-1 record, the nearest competition coming from Macedonia's 5-2. They might be able to catch us but neither of the other two second placed teams were capable of 6-2 at this point. We're off to Lithuania!
Well after that I just had to leave the arena, make my way to Albert Dock where...I completely lost my bearings! I must have come out of a different part of the arena to the one I came in on and eventually decided that I had to bite the bullet, get some money out and get a cab back to Dave's place. The cabbie not knowing his street wasn't a good omen - good thing his satnav was half decent though! When I got back though my voice was so hoarse that Dave thought I was sloshed! As it was I decided to take the opportunity to check email before hitting the sack. I had to be up early the following day.
Why did I have to be up early? Well my Dad had blagged me on to a surfing/camping trip down in Sennen(stone's throw from Land's End) and wanted to pick me up from St Davids ASAP! So, it was up, hit the downstairs shower(good thing Dave's cat wasn't in the way!), grab a couple of slices of toast and coffee before getting myself packed and calling a cab to Lime Street. So far so good. On 9:04 train to New Street.
So, get to Brum on schedule, find southwest-bound train. Head to platform, five minutes to go if that. Suddenly the display changes to a later train heading to Reading! Check longer term schedule...somehow out of nowhere my train had been delayed by 45 minutes! Someone up there was clearly having a laugh! There wasn't much to do about that other than to head back to the concourse and grab a coffee and crisps at Camden Food...and I later wound up picking up a pasty for lunch as the train was delayed further. Finally it arrived and initially didn't make much of an effort to make up for lost time but bolted along with no stops between Bristol and Exeter.
Dad picked me up from St Davids and...that was my basketball traveling done for the year.