Great Britain Qualify For European Basketball Championship - Page 2

Craig Costello · 09-11-2009, 06:38 AM

So, 3 games and 3 losses and a plane trip home for GB.

We gave Spain a scare when we hit our stride to take a 73-69 lead (having trailed 60-47 at one stage), but we ran out of gas and ended up losing 84-76. The other two games were never really in doubt as Slovenia and Serbia gave us a bit of a basketball lesson, 72-59 and 77-59 respectively.

I have no doubt that this experience will have made our young players better. The guards especially (Jarrett Hart, Mike Lenzly, Flinder Boyd) seemed to much more confident and decisive in the Serbia game than they were in the Slovenia one. Our best player over the three games was probably Nate Reinking (a 35-year old American) who averaged 12.0 PPG and shot 6/13 from 3-point range.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu was a liability at times and tended to do two bad things for every good thing, but he did add some energy at key times in the Spain game.

Overall the atmosphere and organisation in Warsaw was fantastic. The Slovenians provided about 90% of the crowds and made the requisite amount of noise - especially when they scored off an intentionally missed free throw with 1.5 seconds left to send their game against Spain into OT.

Craig Costello · 09-15-2009, 03:45 PM

Nearly at the end of the qualifying rounds.

Germany play Croatia in a matter of minutes to decide the last quarter-finalist from Group E -

France 5-0
Russia 3-2
Greece 3-2
Germany 1-3
Croatia 1-3
Macedonia 1-4

France beat Greece earlier on a last second shot to secure the #1 seed. Greece would have been #1 if they had beaten the French, but end up 3rd thanks to two straight losses and will face notionally a tougher quarter-final because of it.

Group F -

Turkey 4-0
Slovenia 3-1
Spain 2-2
Serbia 2-2
Poland 1-3
Lithuania 0-4

Spain play hosts Poland tomorrow in a straight knock-out match (Serbia have beaten both of them already, so even if they lost to Lithuania they will still be in front of Spain and Poland on head-to-head).

We could see France v Spain and Greece v Turkey in the quarters - mouthwatering match-ups.

Craig Costello · 09-17-2009, 08:58 AM

QF's set -

France v Spain
Turkey v Greece
Russia v Serbia
Slovenia v Croatia

The bottom half of the draw looks weaker on paper, but Slovenia have been playing really strongly (with their only loss coming against Spain in OT) and Russia and Serbia could beat anyone on their day.

All 8 teams will probably be in Turkey for 2010 World Championships - Turkey are already there as hosts Europe has 6 other guaranteed spots and is likely to take up at least 2 of the 4 wildcard spots.

Outside of the 8 listed Lithuania are probably a shoe-in to make the World Champs, but there has also been murmuings that Great Britain will be given a spot to help prepare them for the Olympics and to help 'sell' the program to both potential players (Ben Gordon) and the British public with the Olympics in mind.

Craig Costello · 09-18-2009, 05:49 PM

Russia 68 Serbia 79

The Russians had a stone cold second quarter to thank for digging themselves a hole they couldn't get out of. They only scored 4 points (1 three and 1 free throw) in the entire quarter and never looked like making a comeback.

France 66 Spain 86

The Spanish defence caused 6 turnovers in the 1st quarter on their way to a 25-15 lead that they just continued to build on. Pau Gasol dominated inside with 28 points and 3 of Spain's 7 blocked shots.

Turkey 74 Greece 76 (OT)

After an anonymous and pointless first 3 quarters Hedo Turkoglu scored 7 straight points for Turkey to give them a 5 point lead. Big 3's by Zisis and Printezis put Greece back on top, but a lay-up as time expired br Arslan sent it to overtime.

With Greece up 72-69 inside the last 90 seconds they had a basket wiped off thanks to an incorrect reset of the shot clock, but they responded with a huge 3 by Spanoulis. Turkey refused to die though and caused 2 straight turnovers to have their chance, but they couldn't score on either of their final two possessions.

Slovenia 67 Croatia 65

Croatia led 47-32 with less than 20 seconds left in the first half, but they allowed Slovenia to take momentum into the break with 7 points thanks to a technical foul. The Slovenian defence stepped up in the 3rd quarter to keep Croatia to just 3 points and the seemingly unstoppable Erazem Lorbek (27 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 block) took them the rest of the way.

Semis

Spain v Greece
Slovenia v Serbia

(3 of the 4 semi-finalists came from Group C, making GB's performances look slightly better)

Craig Costello · 09-19-2009, 06:19 PM

Spain 82 Greece 64

Another awesome performance by the Spanish defence - causing 20 turnovers and holding Greece to less than 40% shooting. Pau Gasol (18) and Rudy Fernandez (14) were the stars.

Serbia 96 Slovenia 92 (OT)

A much scrappier game both in terms of basketball quality and physicality (71 total fouls). Serbia seemed to take all the momentum on two big threes by Milos Teodosic to take the lead. They looked to gain even more momentum when Erazem Lorbek (25+10) fouled out, but his replacement Goran Jagodnik scored his first 8 points of the night (including an absolute prayer of a three) to give Slovenia a lead. After some missed free-throws by both teams another Teodosic three tied the game at 79 and neither team could take advantage of their final possession.

In OT Nenad Krstic showed up for the first time in a while to score the first 4 points and an Uros Tripkovic 3 gave Serbia a 7 point lead. Just as Slovenia started to chip away, two more huge threes by Teodosic (32 points) kept them at bay.

This makes the final a re-match of the very first Group C game which Serbia won thanks in no small part to 7 missed free-throws by Pau Gasol.

France and Croatia won in the classification games to finalise the 6 qualifiers for the 2010 World Championships - Spain, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece and those two (plus Turkey as hosts). Everyone else will have to wait until December when FIBA announce the 4 wild card spots. GB's chances of getting one look slim with Russia and Lithuania likely to take two of them and Germany and Italy probabvy ahead of them in the queue.

Craig Costello · 09-20-2009, 06:03 PM

Spain 85 Serbia 63

Not even as close as the final score. Serbia had the youngest squad in the tournament (nobody older than 26 and only 5 older than 22) and for most of the game it looked like men against boys.

Spain ended up with more offensive rebounds (18) than Serbia had defensive rebounds (16). Pau Gasol again led Spain from the front with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks on his way to the tournament MVP award.

All-tournament team

Pau Gasol (Spain)
Erazem Lorbek (Slovenia)
Rudy Fernandez (Spain)
Vasileios Spanoulis (Greece)
Milos Teodosic (Serbia)

09-17-2009, 08:58 AM	#23
Craig Costello Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 295	QF's set - France v Spain Turkey v Greece Russia v Serbia Slovenia v Croatia The bottom half of the draw looks weaker on paper, but Slovenia have been playing really strongly (with their only loss coming against Spain in OT) and Russia and Serbia could beat anyone on their day. All 8 teams will probably be in Turkey for 2010 World Championships - Turkey are already there as hosts Europe has 6 other guaranteed spots and is likely to take up at least 2 of the 4 wildcard spots. Outside of the 8 listed Lithuania are probably a shoe-in to make the World Champs, but there has also been murmuings that Great Britain will be given a spot to help prepare them for the Olympics and to help 'sell' the program to both potential players (Ben Gordon) and the British public with the Olympics in mind. Last edited by Craig Costello; 09-17-2009 at 08:59 AM.

09-19-2009, 06:19 PM	#25
Craig Costello Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 295	Spain 82 Greece 64 Another awesome performance by the Spanish defence - causing 20 turnovers and holding Greece to less than 40% shooting. Pau Gasol (18) and Rudy Fernandez (14) were the stars. Serbia 96 Slovenia 92 (OT) A much scrappier game both in terms of basketball quality and physicality (71 total fouls). Serbia seemed to take all the momentum on two big threes by Milos Teodosic to take the lead. They looked to gain even more momentum when Erazem Lorbek (25+10) fouled out, but his replacement Goran Jagodnik scored his first 8 points of the night (including an absolute prayer of a three) to give Slovenia a lead. After some missed free-throws by both teams another Teodosic three tied the game at 79 and neither team could take advantage of their final possession. In OT Nenad Krstic showed up for the first time in a while to score the first 4 points and an Uros Tripkovic 3 gave Serbia a 7 point lead. Just as Slovenia started to chip away, two more huge threes by Teodosic (32 points) kept them at bay. This makes the final a re-match of the very first Group C game which Serbia won thanks in no small part to 7 missed free-throws by Pau Gasol. France and Croatia won in the classification games to finalise the 6 qualifiers for the 2010 World Championships - Spain, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece and those two (plus Turkey as hosts). Everyone else will have to wait until December when FIBA announce the 4 wild card spots. GB's chances of getting one look slim with Russia and Lithuania likely to take two of them and Germany and Italy probabvy ahead of them in the queue. Last edited by Craig Costello; 09-19-2009 at 06:32 PM.

09-11-2009, 06:38 AM	#21
Craig Costello Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 295	So, 3 games and 3 losses and a plane trip home for GB. We gave Spain a scare when we hit our stride to take a 73-69 lead (having trailed 60-47 at one stage), but we ran out of gas and ended up losing 84-76. The other two games were never really in doubt as Slovenia and Serbia gave us a bit of a basketball lesson, 72-59 and 77-59 respectively. I have no doubt that this experience will have made our young players better. The guards especially (Jarrett Hart, Mike Lenzly, Flinder Boyd) seemed to much more confident and decisive in the Serbia game than they were in the Slovenia one. Our best player over the three games was probably Nate Reinking (a 35-year old American) who averaged 12.0 PPG and shot 6/13 from 3-point range. Pops Mensah-Bonsu was a liability at times and tended to do two bad things for every good thing, but he did add some energy at key times in the Spain game. Overall the atmosphere and organisation in Warsaw was fantastic. The Slovenians provided about 90% of the crowds and made the requisite amount of noise - especially when they scored off an intentionally missed free throw with 1.5 seconds left to send their game against Spain into OT.

09-15-2009, 03:45 PM	#22
Craig Costello Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 295	Nearly at the end of the qualifying rounds. Germany play Croatia in a matter of minutes to decide the last quarter-finalist from Group E - France 5-0 Russia 3-2 Greece 3-2 Germany 1-3 Croatia 1-3 Macedonia 1-4 France beat Greece earlier on a last second shot to secure the #1 seed. Greece would have been #1 if they had beaten the French, but end up 3rd thanks to two straight losses and will face notionally a tougher quarter-final because of it. Group F - Turkey 4-0 Slovenia 3-1 Spain 2-2 Serbia 2-2 Poland 1-3 Lithuania 0-4 Spain play hosts Poland tomorrow in a straight knock-out match (Serbia have beaten both of them already, so even if they lost to Lithuania they will still be in front of Spain and Poland on head-to-head). We could see France v Spain and Greece v Turkey in the quarters - mouthwatering match-ups.

09-18-2009, 05:49 PM	#24
Craig Costello Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 295	Russia 68 Serbia* 79* The Russians had a stone cold second quarter to thank for digging themselves a hole they couldn't get out of. They only scored 4 points (1 three and 1 free throw) in the entire quarter and never looked like making a comeback. France 66 Spain* 86* The Spanish defence caused 6 turnovers in the 1st quarter on their way to a 25-15 lead that they just continued to build on. Pau Gasol dominated inside with 28 points and 3 of Spain's 7 blocked shots. Turkey 74 Greece* 76 (OT)* After an anonymous and pointless first 3 quarters Hedo Turkoglu scored 7 straight points for Turkey to give them a 5 point lead. Big 3's by Zisis and Printezis put Greece back on top, but a lay-up as time expired br Arslan sent it to overtime. With Greece up 72-69 inside the last 90 seconds they had a basket wiped off thanks to an incorrect reset of the shot clock, but they responded with a huge 3 by Spanoulis. Turkey refused to die though and caused 2 straight turnovers to have their chance, but they couldn't score on either of their final two possessions. Slovenia 67 Croatia 65 Croatia led 47-32 with less than 20 seconds left in the first half, but they allowed Slovenia to take momentum into the break with 7 points thanks to a technical foul. The Slovenian defence stepped up in the 3rd quarter to keep Croatia to just 3 points and the seemingly unstoppable Erazem Lorbek (27 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 block) took them the rest of the way. Semis Spain v Greece Slovenia v Serbia (3 of the 4 semi-finalists came from Group C, making GB's performances look slightly better)

09-20-2009, 06:03 PM	#26
Craig Costello Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 295	Spain 85 Serbia 63 Not even as close as the final score. Serbia had the youngest squad in the tournament (nobody older than 26 and only 5 older than 22) and for most of the game it looked like men against boys. Spain ended up with more offensive rebounds (18) than Serbia had defensive rebounds (16). Pau Gasol again led Spain from the front with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks on his way to the tournament MVP award. All-tournament team Pau Gasol (Spain) Erazem Lorbek (Slovenia) Rudy Fernandez (Spain) Vasileios Spanoulis (Greece) Milos Teodosic (Serbia)