There were a lot of happy people at the Echo Arena in Liverpool yesterday as BOTH the GB Men’s and GB Women’s team secured their place at Eurobasket 2011.
The GB Women were up first with a 77-59 demolition of Germany. The result was never in doubt as the women cruised throughout led by 18 points and 9 rebounds from Julie Page . Jo Leedham added 15 points and five boards while Kim Butler finished with 12 points for GB.
They will go into Sunday’s final game against Ukraine knowing that they already have a place in Poland 2011 assured.
The Men, perhaps using the women’s performance as inspiration, followed suit, but didn’t have quite as much of an easy time with it needing overtime to dispatch of Bosnia & Herzegovina 94-85. The game was dominated by GB’s two stars, Luol Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu who combined for 70 points and 34 rebounds! Deng scored a GB record 38 points, whilst Pops finished with 32.
They will now look to secure first place in the group with a win on Sunday against Ukraine away.
What a HUGE day. Hard to put into words my feelings about the whole thing but it’s massive. GB Head Coach Chris Finch had a few words for the press afterwards when asked about GB’s prospects of playing at London 2012:
“We’ve met every performance marker they’ve laid down, we believe we’re entitled to our rightful spot by the way we play.”
Too right..think it’s about time we got our place in our Olympics confirmed…
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What a fantastic day at the Liverpool Echo Arena, watching both the men and women teams qualify (and rightly so) for Euro 2011, but also let FIBA know that GB are good enough to play in our own Olympics.
A big thank you to the BBB guys.
http://www.fibaeurope.com/cid_KNce8jInH7Qj1EsyH5rjn2.roundID_7524.compID_qMRZdYCZI6EoANOrUf9le2.coid_paTQmpPvJ3MJJfyUSOTZY0.articleMode_on.html
A good piece I found on FIBA Europe. Rule Britannia!