Vanderwal relishing chance to feed off home support
BySportsbeat
Published 24/11/2015 at 15:21 GMT
Great Britain guard Rachael Vanderwal wants her team to thrive under the pressure of playing in front of the home crowd when they take on fellow EuroBasket Women 2017 qualifiers Italy in Manchester on Wednesday.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The London 2012 Olympian and her teammates return to Britain this week off the back of a 78-64 defeat to Montenegro in their opening qualification match last Saturday.
The 32-year-old was one of a number of players who put in an encouraging performance under new head coach Jose Maria Buceta – playing over 31 minutes and racking up 11 points in an efficient shooting display.
And with the chance to quickly get back to winning ways, Vanderwal is relishing the opportunity to run out at the Amaechi Centre in Manchester.
"Playing at home is always a great experience and hopefully we can really feed off the crowds' energy tomorrow night," said Vanderwal.
"Also being able to play in front of friends and family is something we don't get the chance to do a lot, so that is an added incentive as well as the importance of the game.
"If we fight and play together again, then hopefully we can get that much needed win.
"We started the game very well against Montenegro and we were really sticking to our game plan.
"However, we went away from that in the second quarter when they went on a bit of a run.
"In the second half, we came back very strong and played with that GB fighting mentality."
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