Great Britain were never able to recover from a poor first half as they went down 94-83 against the Netherlands in their final games of the Tel Aviv tournament.
Without Pops Mensah-Bonsu or Nate Reinking, who were both resting minor niggles ahead of EuroBasket qualifier against Hungary, the GB side gave up 57 first half period points and a good second half saw them only able to knock five off the 16 point half-time deficit.
GB started slowly as the Dutch big men caused them problems, and they trailed 27-20 at the first break before being outscored 30-21 in the second period to go into the locker room 57-41 down.
A better second half performance saw GB step up their defence at the post, and a 20-16 third period saw them cut the lead to 73-61 going into the final stanza.
That deficit to cut to as few in the final period, but the Dutch held on to take their first win of the tournament.
Matthew Bryan-Amaning led the GB scoring with 16 points, with Rob Yanders adding 15 and Flinder Boyd 12.
Coach Finch wasn't too downhearted with the result: "With Pops and Nate not playing today it provided an opportunity for some of the young guys to step up. It was good to get them some quality minutes - they played well" he said.
"Defensively, we really struggled in the first half, giving up a lot of easy looks inside. We were better in the second half, but we've still got some work to do
"This was a good tournament for us. Three quality opponents, and now the team is looking forward to kicking things off next week."
GB now have five days to prepare for their opening EuroBasket qualifying game of the summer in Hungary.
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010
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