GB women fall to Italy defeat in second EuroBasket qualifier

BySportsbeat

Published 26/11/2015 at 10:54 GMT

Great Britain women's head coach Jose Maria Buceta insisted there were still positives to take away from the court despite his side suffering their second consecutive EuroBasket qualifer defeat against Italy.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Playing in front of a home crowd in Manchester, Great Britain led for the first 16 minutes before Italy found their feet to dominate the next two periods.

Buceta's team battled back to get back to within two points at 46-44 in the final quarter but the visitors held firm to win 60-48.

For Great Britain, Chantelle Handy hit four three-pointers as part of her 16-point haul while Johannah Leedham, who scored 20 in Saturday's defeat by Montenegro, added another 11 points.

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The result leaves Great Britain winless after two games in EuroBasket Women qualifying Group C although Buceta was remaining optimistic.

"I am proud of what we have done in just ten days and I think the team has improved," said Buceta.

"It would have been good to have won this game and in the second quarter, we couldn't find a position to take and make good shots.

"We made some mistakes defensively and they scored 22 points in that second quarter and that was the key to the game.

"After half-time they extended their lead and we found some new ideas that worked well and the girls showed courage in their quest to win the game when we got it back to 46-44."

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