Great Britain lost their sixth World Cup qualifier in a row, 74-68 to Serbia in Newcastle, and have now been eliminated from the tournament.
New captain Gabe Olaseni led GB’s scoring with 20 points, Luke Nelson had 15 and Patrick Whelan added 10.
Despite coming back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, GB were unable to break their losing run.
The team now travels to Latvia for another qualifier on Monday, where they will only have pride to play for.
GB gave first caps to centres Aaron Menzies and Josh Sharma and 19-year-old guard Quinn Ellis in the team’s first game after the retirement of veteran centre and captain Dan Clark.
In front of a boisterous Newcastle crowd, but with recent leading scorer Myles Hesson absent along with the injured Ovie Soko, GB looked at their most dangerous when Nelson was on the floor early on and he had 13 points at half-time.
But Serbia gave him little chance to add to that in the second half. The scoring load then fell on experienced centre Olaseni, who stepped in with 12 points in the third quarter, half of those coming from the foul line.
In the fourth quarter, Nelson returned to ignite a 7-0 run to bring Serbia’s lead to two points, but that was followed by two missed three-point shots that let Serbia off the hook.
“I’m proud of the guys,” said Olaseni after game. “When we get a level playing field like other teams we can compete with the best in Europe. It’s either winning or misery for us right now.”
Group I table
| Latvia | 7 | 6 | 1 | 13 | +65 |
| Greece | 7 | 4 | 3 | 11 | +14 |
| Serbia | 7 | 4 | 3 | 11 | +8 |
| Turkey | 7 | 3 | 4 | 10 | +22 |
| Belgium | 7 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -37 |
| Great Britain | 7 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -72 |
