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The Great Britain Men’s Team formally qualified again in the EuroBasket after finishing on top of Group B with a win against Bosnia and Herzegovina, 94-85 in overtime, Thursday in Liverpool.
Former NBA player Pops Mensah – Bonsu capped off his impressive stint in the tournament with yet another monster performance as he scored 32 points and grabbed a whopping 21 rebounds for Great Britain.
Chicago Bulls superstar, who was obviously pumped up by former Bulls teammate and GB injured guard Ben Gordon, also had a share of the spotlight when he finished the game with a game-high 38 points and 13 rebounds.
“We tried to come out aggressively, driving to the basket. I’m so excited to be in the finals, I love playing for Great Britain. The crowd has been excellent this year, everyone’s done a good job to support us, and we really appreciate that.” Deng said.
Great Britain had to exert an extra effort this time after being on the verge of losing as they were down by three points with 22 seconds left in the fourth period. Deng and Mensah – Bonsu converted crucial free throws to force an extra period.
GB sailed through in the overtime and never looked back to bag the win and formalizes their entry in the 2011 EuroBasket.
Great Britain Head Coach was obviously impressed with how his team performed all-tournament long that gave them a 6-1 record, the lone loss handed by group’s second-placer FYR Macedonia.
“Our team has great character. We all believed we could win every game even when we were down late. We responded well and made the hustle plays.” Finch said.
“Drew Sullivan got good stops, Pops made some huge plays and Luol was superb for us. But over all we have a mentally tough group of players.” he added.
Ratko Varda and Henry Domercant tallied 21 points apiece, while Kenan Bajramovic added 16 points for Bosnia, which finished the game with a 2-5 record.
“I think it was a tough match from the beginning. We did a poor job on Luol Deng, he got them going early and we had a job stopping him. Down the stretch and in overtime he and Mensah-Bonsu stepped up and made plays. But we didn’t which is the main reason we lost.” Domercant said.
Great Britain will wrap up the tournament against on Sunday in Ukraine.
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