Great Britain Men beat Italy for the second time in the European Championships, this time in the semi-final.

Despite falling behind after 30 seconds, Kyle Marsh asserted his quality with a wonderful 3-pointer to instantly put Great Britain into the lead. The team never looked back and quickly grew in confidence, adding further baskets from the likes of Lee Manning and Simon Brown helping stretch their advantage.

It was a scrappy end to the first quarter with a mixture of fouls and missed opportunities – but Great Britain continued in charge up until halftime, holding onto that 8-point advantage with the score standing at 33-25.

By that halfway period Gregg Warburton had already registered 5 assists, and after just 50 seconds into the third quarter he was providing for his teammates once again, steering the ball to Lee Manning who made no mistake.

Manning was in outstanding form in attack, and in the third quarter scooped a slightly wayward pass from the clutches of converging Italy players and, despite missing with his first attempt, remarkably retained the ball and casually flicked in the rebound.

With just over 1 minute left in the third quarter, Simon Brown was fouled and fell heavily – unable to convert his free-throws but who else but Lee Manning was first to the rebound to score.

Leading 48-35 going into the last ten minutes, Great Britain looked to get stronger as the game went on, Kyle Marsh working well in both defence and attack. In the end they were too much for the Italians to cope with, finishing the game 65 – 43 winners.