Britain fell to their first loss on the second day of men’s EuroBasket against France – and head coach Joe Prunty was taking nothing away from the performance of their opponents.
Coming up against a team boasting Tony Parker, who reached the NBA Finals with San Antonio Spurs this past season and Portland Trail Blazers’ Nicolas Batum, Britain were in for a stiff challenge.
And so it proved as France, runners-up in the last EuroBasket in 2011, claimed an 88-65 victory with Batum scoring a game-high 17 points and Parker contributing 16.
The first and third quarters were vital France as they took them 26-14 and 26-11 however Britain showed they can compete by taking the second 23-19 and tying the fourth 17-17.
Courtesy of their opening defeat of Israel, Britain are now level on one win and one loss with France, Belgium and Germany in Group A while Ukraine are the only unbeaten team.
Britain face Belgium next in Slovenia and head coach Prunty held his hands up and admitted the Parker and Batum boasting French outfit were just too good on the day.
"France deserves a lot of credit for the things they did," he said. "The first and third quarters were pretty big keys and really set the tone.
"We did match that level of intensity that we needed to and the game became very free flowing. That really benefitted them.
"We have to give them credit and we now move onto the next one against Belgium which will be a very difficult test as well."
© Sportsbeat 2013