U22 European Championships
Adana, Turkey
02 - 11 July 2008
Italy 42 - Great Britain 56
We dominated this game from the tip & started with Lee, Matt, Simon, Kyle & Laurie who deserved her starting 5 place after her great play yesterday.
This was one of those games that we could have taken lightly & struggled. Italy lost to both Turkey (by 3) and to Belgium (by 9) and scored over 50 points against both.
Italy probably expected us to press full court but instead, we played zone pressure defence, pushing out to their 2 main shooters, denying them easy shots.
1st Quarter 15 - 4 - After a number of missed shots from both teams, Italy scored first, soon followed by a 3 from Simon who scored our first 9 points. Midway through the quarter we made changes to the line up with Terry coming in and scoring again.
Scorers – Simon 9, Kyle 4, Terry 2
2nd Quarter 14 - 14 - With further player changes and Simon rested, the intensity dropped and we gave up too many shots both inside the key and out. We did keep scoring, which was important and went into half time 29 – 18.
Scorers – Simon 4, Kyle 2, Tom 2, Lee 6
3rd Quarter 13 - 12 – Harry started the quarter with Simon, Lee, Helen & Tom. He played with confidence and composure and worked hard on the floor. His first international basket came from a breakaway – on his own, long pass from Simon, two Italian players bearing down on him he drove to the basket and made his lay up. A very proud moment for us all and even more so for a 14 year old!
Helen got us going with three from three made shots, two outside the key and the other on a fake and drive and a shot from the elbow.
Scorers – Helen 6, Lee 3, Matt 2 and Harry Brown 2
4th Quarter 12 - 14 – We reintroduced Simon who scored 8 points including another 3. With about half the quarter remaining, the line up was Terry, Helen, Maddie, Laurie and Simon. The players worked hard and won the quarter.
Scorers – Simon 8, Nat, Terry & Helen 2 each
Game scores – Simon 21, Lee 9, Helen 8, Kyle 6, Terry 4, Tom, Nat Matt, Harry 2
A good all round performance with all players contributing.
We play Germany tomorrow in the final pool game.
Haj Bhania - Head Coach