Britain’s men suffered their first defeat under head coach Joe Prunty but he insists they will take plenty from the latest EuroBasket warm-up against Finland.
Prunty, appointed head coach of the GB men’s team in June, saw Britain defeat Puerto Rico twice, one of which came in a closed doors fixture, prior to heading to Helsinki.
However Britain couldn’t make it three in a row as they fell 88-66 to Finland, who will join them at the EuroBasket, which runs from September 4-22 in Slovenia.
Eric Boateng contributed a team-high 13 points for Britain but a 16-0 run in the third period gave Finland a lead they would not surrender on home soil.
Britain now move onto Crete to face Greece, also at the EuroBasket, in their next warm-up and Prunty is adamant they will learn from the defeat to Finland.
“We’ll take a lot from the game. The third quarter was tough for us, offensively and defensively. We had done a decent job in the first half in terms of limiting their three-point shots,” said Prunty.
“We stabilised things in the second quarter but after we led at the start of the third, it kind of snowballed. So we are going to have to handle runs like that much better.”
© Sportsbeat 2013