ENGLAND 82 - 65 GREECE
After progressing through to the next round of the Euro's, England wanted to continue where they left off from the last game with a trip to Greece. The first quarter saw us get off to a great start on both ends of the court with Mark Salley impressing with 16 points and 8 rebounds, seeing England take a 27-14 lead. The second saw England maintain their lead continuing to dominate inside the paint, despite committing a few too many turnovers. The half time buzzer saw Greece trail by a score of 50-32. Throughout the second half, both teams traded blows throughout with neither team being able to build momentum to extend the lead or claw their way back into it. The second half finished with Greece narrowly edging it 33-32 however England won the overall proceedings to take the first game of the second round and build on their fantastic season.
Looking at the group, we have a load of tough games and rightly so as every country in this stage deserves to be here. It will be extremely tough to qualify for the semis but there's no reason why we can't after upsetting the odds against Ukraine and Czech Republic. Similar to the first round, we will take one game at a time and lets see where that takes us. With regards to the tactics, I thought they were spot on today with Mark Salley leading the way with a season high 33 points and 21 rebounds. It also shows the depth of the squad this season as our best player of the season, David Carter, was left out today and Steven Ward done a good job of filling his boots with 10 points and 5 assists, so overall a lot of positives from the game.
Once again, thank you to all managers for the great GS, we will need the same next week as we battle it out against Croatia.