Great Britain revived their hopes of EuroBasket qualification by beating Montenegro 74-59 in in Pau, France.
Centre Gabe Olaseni led the team with 28 points – his highest tally for his country – while Myles Hesson and Luke Nelson added 15 and 13 respectively.
After trailing early on, GB led for the remainder of the game, shooting and rebounding well.
The winning margin gives Great Britain the head-to-head record against Montenegro.
After losing heavily, 79-56 to hosts France on Friday, coach Marc Steutel’s team responded with energy and character, posting a confident 16-2 run in the first quarter and holding their opponents at bay in a low-scoring second quarter.
Crucially, they then held Montenegro scoreless for almost six minutes after the half-time interval to take a 13-point lead that stretched to 17 points in the fourth quarter as GB rolled to victory.
Montenegro captain Nemanja Djurisic admitted afterwards that “GB ran everything – and we had problems matching their effort.”
“Gabe established the defensive tone for our group tonight,” said Steutel afterwards. “Friday night was tough but I always had had belief that we could put a performance together on the defensive end and we did that today.”
“It feels good – but all I do is shoot lay-ups, really,” said Olaseni. “The guys just do a great job of getting me open. When I have a game like this, it just means that we’re moving the ball well.”
The win means GB must only match Montenegro’s results in the last two games in order to qualify. As it stands, those games are on the road in Germany and France, but as the next qualifying window opens in February, pandemic restrictions might still have an influence on the outcome.
| France | 4 | 3 | 1 | 319 | 279 | 7 | +40 |
| Great Britain | 4 | 2 | 2 | 285 | 292 | 6 | -7 |
| Montenegro | 4 | 2 | 2 | 286 | 307 | 6 | -21 |
| Germany | 4 | 1 | 3 | 304 | 316 | 5 | -12 |
