A good fourth period performance wasn’t enough to prevent Standard Life GB Women suffering a 64-57 defeat against Turkey in their latest EuroBasket second stage game this afternoon.
Tom Maher’s team trailed by 11 points midway through the final quarter, but fought back to make it a two point game going into the final 80 seconds before Turkey sealed the game from the free-throw line.
Britain’s hopes of progressing to the quarter-final now rely on them beating Russia on Monday afternoon and hoping that other results go their way.
Natalie Stafford had her best offensive game of the tournament so far as she finished with 18 points, adding five rebounds and two assists in nearly 35 minutes of action.
Julie Page had 12 points and a massive 13 rebounds for an impressive double-double, and added three assists for Britain, while Jo Leedham had 11 points. Kim Butler had eight rebounds to go with her four points, while Azania Stewart finished with seven points and three boards.
Ultimately, Britain’s shooting cost them, hitting only 33 percent of their two point efforts, 25 percent from three-point land and 68.4 percent of their free-throws, but they made the Turks fight all of the way with some excellent defensive play and good rebounding.
Leedham couldn’t hide her disappointment after the loss: “It’s very disappointing again, but there are positives. We’ll look back and think we could have changes things or down things differently.
“We were on a high after we’d got it back to two points, but we missed a crucial box-out and I missed a shot which proved to be a big turning point. It was at a crucial phase, and that was a real blow and knocked the wind out of us.”
Point guard Stef Collins looked on the positive side after the defeat: “It was a battle, but we knew they are a decent team and it would be tough. We fought well, but we didn’t execute well down the stretch. But it’s been a big learning curve for us. I think we have to beat Russia by something like 24 points, but we’ll give it a go.”
GB won the tip, and after Chantelle Handy’s initial shot rimmed out, Stafford grabbed the offensive rebound, and although they missed their first six shots, Britain took a 4-0 lead thanks to scores from Page and Butler.
A single Stef Collins free-throw continued the run, before the Turks got on the scoresheet through Nevriye Yilmaz with 5:51 on the clock.
That sparked an 8-0 Turkish run before Leedham marked her introduction into the game with a pair of lay-ups to put GB ahead again.
The game remained nip and tuck, with GB narrowly out-rebounding the Turks, and three points from Stewart kept them within two points at 17-15 going into the first break.
Tugba Palazoglu opened the second period scoring for Turkey before Page replied, but Britain still trailed by two when the Turks called a timeout with 8:46 on the clock.
Page levelled the score with a lay-up out of the break, but Nevin Nevlin hit five points for Turkey and it took a Butler jump shot to keep GB in touch before Stafford cut the deficit to one at 24-23 with five minutes of the half remaining.
Saziye Ivegin hit a three-pointer to put the Turks up by four, only for Stewart and Stafford to both break down the Turkish defence and level things at 27 with 3:34 on the clock.
Birsel Vardarli also hit a three-pointer, and with Butler missing a pair at the foul line, Ivegin doubled the lead with a shot outside the three-point arc to force a timeout from Maher with 52 seconds remaining in the half and his team down by six.
Page missed a jump shot out of the break, but some good British defence saw them force a 24 second violation by the Turks.
Stafford missed a buzzer-beating three-pointer, and Britain went into the locker room at half-time trailing 33-27, having hit only two of their six free-throws.
Yilmaz scored the first four points of the second half to put Turkey up by ten, and although Handy replied with a lay-up, Yilmaz scored again and Vardarli made it a 14-point game.
Stafford broke the run with her second three-point shot of the game off Page’s assist as GB trailed 41-32 with five minutes gone.
A pair of Leedham free-throws and score from Rachel Vanderwal made it a five point game with 3:38 on the clock to force a Turkey timeout.
Page hit a pair of foul shots, and a Leedham lay-up took her tally to eight points and kept GB in touch as Turkey reached the final break 45-40 ahead having outscored the Turks by a point in the third quarter.
Stafford cut the deficit to three off another Page assist to open the final period but Ivegin hit four straight points to make it a seven point Turkish lead, and Yilmaz then hit back-to-back shots to leave GB trailing 53-42 with five minutes left in the game.
Page broke a four minute GB scoring drought and Stafford was sent to the foul line after an intentional foul by Nilay Kartaltepe where she hit both free-throws but saw her jump shot rim out.
Stafford continued to be Britain’s main offensive threat, and she converted a three-point play to make it 53-48 going into the final three minutes.
Stewart continued the comeback by making it a three point game, and Turkey called a timeout with two and half minutes remaining.
Nelvin and Leedham exchanged baskets out of the break before Leedham took her tally to 11 by converting the three-point play to make it 55-53 in Turkey’s favour heading into the final two minutes.
Ivegin was fouled by Butler and converted both free-throws to double that lead, only to see Stafford reply with a lay-up.
Unfortunately for Britain, that was as good as it got. Nevlin restored the four point advantage for Turkey, and Page fouled her after Leedham’s three-pointer had rimmed out and she hit both free-throws to put the Turks up by six, and they wrapped it up from the foul line.
For the boxscore and statistics please click here.
