GB U22's make European Finals by defeating Turkey
Great Britain’s U22 wheelchair basketball team made the final of the European Championships after a convincing win over Turkey in the semi final.
GB Juniors made the final of the European Junior Championships after a very efficient performance against Turkey in the semi final. After beating Turkey in the earlier pool game by a narrow margin, GB knew they would have to play better in this game to succeed. With Turkey’s No. 5 Yamac and No. 9 Cetingoz already amongst the top 5 scorers in the tournament, the target was to limit their opportunities. GB pressed early with Harry Brown, Nat Craig and Richard Sargent picking up both players early. They were very effective and GB knew that with their conditioning, the pressure would tell later in the game.
GB got off to a good start but missed a number of breakaway lay-up opportunities but scores from Lee Manning, 4 and Kyle Marsh, 6 gave GB a small lead at the quarter 12 -6. With GB's press starting to take effect, head coach used his bench effectively replacing Richard Sargent with Jordan Bright and Lee Manning with Terry Yates, the pressure continued and GB again were able to create breakaway lay-ups. Scores from Kyle Marsh, 10, Lee Manning and Harry Brown with 4 points each and Richard Sargent enabled GB to extend their lead to 14 points at the half with a 20-10 quarter and 32 -18 half time score.
The relentless pressure continued into the second half and in the third quarter, GB scored 21 points and contained Turkey to 13 points including not allowing Yamac making any three 3 point shots. Lay-ups on the break added to the GB score. The scoring was spread between seven Great Britain players in the quarter and the score at the end of the third quarter was 53 -31.
The final quarter was GB’s most efficient. GB’s intensive defence had its impact with Turkey scoring only 2 points to Great Britain’s 20. With Five minutes plus to play, GB saw the game out with Helen Freeman, Laurie Williams, Emmanuel Filson, Billy Bridge and Jack Gibbs all on court, they maintained the half court defensive effort and allowed only one score against them. Emmanuel scored 4 points including 2 free throws and Helen Freeman 5 points with 1 free-throw.
Turkey were in foul trouble early with their aggressive and intimidating style of play which included a technical foul and two unsportsmanlike fouls against GB players being fouled intentionally from behind going to the basket (although on one of them the team manager did remove the player for a talking to). At the end of the game, 3-4 Turkish players left the court and did not acknowledge the GB players.
GB finished the game 73 -33. It was a great team performance.