GB ARE DOING THE BUSINESS

 

(Image taken from BBC)

Great Britain's basketball team was on the rise. Having anhiliated European Division B Group B, they faced a two legged playoff with Switzerland for promotion to Division A. The first leg of the tie was in Sheffield and the Swiss were caught completely on the hop. GB winning the match 74-41. The second leg, for what it was worth, was in Geneva. Switzerland did at least turn up for that game but were never a serious bet to turn around the first leg deficit and in the end GB won the second leg 89-78. That gave us a 163-119 win on aggregate which meant that we cruised through to Division A with Finland beating Romania in the other playoff tie.

That was last summer. This summer it's time to try 2009 Eurobasket qualifying Division A for size. GB found themselves in Group D alongside Israel, the Czech Republic and Bosnia. Out of those three teams, the Israelis and Czechs are veterans of Eurobasket 2007 and therefore the teams to beat. We face each team home and away. If we top the group, we've got a spot at Eurobasket 2009 in Poland and almost certainly a spot in the 2012 Olympic basketball competition. Finish second and we also had a chance of qualification, or at least a playoff. The one thing we had to avoid was relegation back to Division B, we could forget about the Olympics after that.

First order of business was facing Israel in Tel Aviv. The Israelis must have seriously underestimated us because we were surging at them from the start, the home side not scoring for over a minute and not taking their first lead till nearly two minutes into a 10 minute first quarter. The lead then changed hands a few times(Israel leading 16-14 at one point) but by the end of the first we had restored a solid lead and hit double figures in the second quarter before the home side eventually pulled us back to 47-42 at the half with Luol Deng doing it again. And to think that no British TV channel wanted anything to do with this match! This side has more energy than the England football team showed in the last five games.

The Israelis however responded in the third, shredding our lead to one in the first two minutes of the quarter before overhauling us by mid quarter. We weren't done yet though, coming back to retake the lead briefly with 3:45 on the clock before the Israelis turned the table again to lead 69-67 at the end of the third. We stayed with the home side through the fourth quarter though, but it looked as though our opponents would come away with the win despite solid defence on our part untill we managed to take the lead with 1:43 on the clock. The lead seesawed. 3 seconds on the clock we led 85-83...only for Meir Tapiro to deny us with two buzzer beating free throws. Game finished tied at 85. Overtime.

The Israelis opened the scoring in overtime but we were soon duelling with them from three point land, leading 90-89 with just over three minute left in the five minute session before backing out lead up with solid defence for a further minute. However the Israelis then found top gear and surged ahead with a 6-0 run. Having one our guys ejected on some dodgy calls didn't help matters but overall, this match really showed how far we'd come in the past two years - it was our first defeat since '06! Israel won 102-92 with Lior Eliyahu leading the way with 24 points, even though Luol still outscored him. Dissapointing but we certainly weren't outclassed.

Next up was a return home to face the Czech Republic in London. Again no TV coverage but big up to Basketball 24/7 for the brilliant online coverage they provided. The Czechs were absolutely blitzed in the first quarter. They concentrated all their defence on Luol but he's not the only guy with NBA experience. The best the Czechs could do was to cut our initial lead down to two. We responded by surging to a double digit lead before they knew what had hit them. The early stages of the second quarter were quiet but really the game already felt like it was over as a contest. Pops-Mensah Bonsu was leading the way with Luol smothered and our halftime lead was 37-23.

In the second half, well the Czechs didn't start too badly and managed to cut our lead to eight but we just regrouped and hit back with rock solid defence and occasional displays of class that must have been manna from heaven for some of the long-time British fans in the arena. We just kept the scoreboard ticking over and by the fourth quarter the Czechs must have pretty much given up. They made some occasional good plays but their fans must have been wondering why they couldn't have made them earlier in the game. Our lead broke the twenty point barrier on multiple occasions even though the Czechs made a late run we still won the game 87-68 with Nate Reinking, a Yank who plays in the BBL leading the wscoring with 22 points.

Elsewhere, the Czechs had previously beaten Bosnia in the Czech town of Pardubice 70-56 which made our later win over the Eurobasket 2007 veterans seem even more impressive though like in their match against GB, they got off to a slow start. The Bosnians went on to face Israel in the town of Tuzia. The match had appeared to be a tight affair untill mid way through the third quarter at which point the Bosnians pulled off a pretty impressive upset, earning a 77-71 win. That proved to be seriously good news for GB. With a 1-1 record after two games and a +9 points difference we found ourselves top of the group and on course for Eurobasket 2009!

Still a long way to go though.

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