3 July, 2018

Continental Clash 2018 – Day Two Match Report (3 July)

On Day 2 the GB Men battled Japan in a thrilling contest. Once again coach Bhania started with a young line-up; James MacSorley, Harry Brown, Gregg Warburton, Phil Pratt and Lee Manning. The five had an average age of 24. GB got off to a blistering start as big points from Manning and top scorer Warburton allowed GB to get a 22-13 head start by the end of the first quarter. For the second quarter GB chose to switch to a more experienced line-up, a series of baskets from Japan’s Akira Toyoshima prompted quick responses from the likes of Abdi Jama and Gaz Choudhry. It was an explosive start to the third quarter as Takuya Furusawa and Gaz Choudhry traded an array of 3-pointers sending the crowd into a frenzy. Going into the final quarter Warburton kept adding to his 15-point total whilst George Bates was subbed in and racked up points in quick succession, in the end GB picked up the 73-52 win.

GB were on fire in the first quarter as they gained a 16-7 lead courtesy of big baskets from Helen Freeman and Maddie Thompson with rebounds from Robyn Love. However, the Netherlands’ Beijer went on an absolute tear for the rest of the game, constantly adding to her top scoring 33 points. Although the last half remained fairly even GB were unable to respond and recover from Beijer’s persistent onslaught which meant the opposition came out as the victors despite GB’s best efforts, 51-42.

Day 2 was fairly notable for all the closely fought action it featured in the women’s pool. Germany faced Canada which was close right down to the wire, ending in a 63-60 victory for the Germany.

Germany then went on to face Japan later that evening. The game was even between both sides with the exception of the third quarter were Germany got the advantage through three of their 4.5’s Mareike Miller (21pts), Katharina Lang and Marina Mohnen both on 14pts each. Despite determination from Japan’s Chihiro Kitada and Mari Amimoto, Germany secured the victory 54-46.

In the men’s pool Netherlands met Spain; the game proved to be an exciting one from the get go as Holland’s Robin Poggenwisch drained a 3-pointer as the opening basket. The game was even all the way through to the point where both teams tied at 60, forcing the game into overtime were the Spanish side manged to edge ahead and win the game 73-69 with Alejandro Zarzuela top scoring with 24 points.

The game that closed out the evening was a fittingly close encounter between Canada and Poland which was even for the first 30 minutes of play until Canada found the wherewithal to gain the lead in the final quarter with Patrick Anderson dropping 20 points closely followed by the youngster Ben Moronchuk on 18. The game closed in Canada’s favour 71-61.

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