GB squads and coaches confirmed for FIBA 3×3 League of Nations mission
Great Britain squads and coaches have been confirmed for the 3×3 U23 League of Nations in France next month.
Head coaches Krumesh Patel and Kenrick Liburd will lead the young male and female teams respectively when they compete in Voiron between August 2-4 in their second test of the summer.
Abby Lowe, Loren Christie and Paige Robinson return for the women with Ebony Horton joining them for the first time. Katie Bennett is reserve.
For the men, Eljay Morris, Flynn Boardman-Raffet, Evan Walshe and Veron Eze make up the four-strong squad, with Tosan Evbuomwan unavailable.
Both teams were part of the three-stop ‘bubble’ event in Israel last month with the same condensed three-stop approach being adopted in France.
Teams have been entered as part of a collaboration between Great Britain Basketball and Basketball England to help prepare Team England players for next year’s Commonwealth Games and set about improving the GB national teams’ 3×3 rankings.
Both teams managed to grab wins against stiff competition in their first 3×3 outings and Basketball England Head of Talent and Performance Steve Bucknall – responsible for overseeing the GB/BE 3×3 programme – said: “We learnt a lot as an organisation, as coaches and as players from the experience in Israel and from the seniors’ Europe Cup campaign in Romania, when the women qualified for the Finals.
“We will take that into this next challenge to be better prepared as we continue to build the programme with the view to improving the GB 3×3 federation rankings and preparing Team England for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next year.”
GB’s opponents in Voiron will be announced soon.
GB U23 Women
#1 Ebony Horton
#2 Abby Lowe, Newcastle Eagles
#3 Loren Christie, University at Buffalo, USA
#4 Paige Robinson-Miller, BA London Lions
Reserve: Katie Bennett
Coach: Kenrick Liburd
GB U23 Men
#1 Eljay Morris, Emmanuel, USA
#2 Flynn Boardman-Raffet, Memorial University, USA
#3 Evan Walshe, Surrey Scorchers
#4 Veron Eze, Augustana College, USA
Reserve: Aaron Badibo
Coach: Krumesh Patel