GB 56-79 France: Report, reaction, highlights, stats, pictures
Great Britain have little over a day to recover from a draining defeat to France.
Coach Marc Steutel’s men could not pull off another surprise following their big home win over Germany in February.
They go into Sunday’s clash with Montenegro looking for a second victory in EuroBasket 2022 Qualifying Group G.
And Steutel will be looking for an improved performance after his GB underdogs got off to a troubled start and never found their way back against the world’s sixth-ranked team in Pau.
France had 15 points on the board by the time big man Gabe Olaseni opened the British scoring midway through a first quarter that ended with his team 24-5 down.
France paired tigerish defense with slick offense to build a 46-20 half-time lead before an 8-0 British run provided some respite at the start of the third. It was ended by another Amath M’Baye three which prompted a burst of scoring from his team.
GB took the third 17-16 to go into the fourth 62-37 down. They edged the quarter 19-17 with Dan Clark taking his tally to 11 but the damage was already done.
Olaseni carried the GB fight in the paint with 11 points while Ashley Hamilton had a team-high 12.
M’Baye led the way with 24 for France with the dead-eyed Axel Bouteille hitting 5/6 from three-point range for 15 points.
Boxscore
Group G standings
Steutel said: “I was really disappointed in our start, our lack of execution and felt that we were on the wrong side of the physicality and the pace of the game.
“We gave them a little bit of breathing space and against a team as established as France it is difficult.
“What I will say is our guys regrouped at half time and defensively we were better, executed and got some stops and were better in the second half.”
Clark said: “We have to build on some positives from the game because we have another game on Sunday and we want to come back strong because it’s a game that we need to win.”