Great Britain opened their EuroBasket finals campaign with a heavy 90-61 defeat by Ukraine in Milan.
Luke Nelson was the top scorer for GB with 16 points, with Myles Hesson and Gabe Olaseni adding 10 points each.
The game is the first of five group games in Italy for Nate Reinking’s team in the next six days, with four teams qualifying for the second phase in Berlin.
GB’s second game is against Croatia on Saturday.
GB started brightly, only for missed shots and turnovers to hand the taller, well-drilled Ukraine squad the momentum and a closing 13-3 burst put them 22-17 up after the first quarter.
“We didn’t capitalise on our early pass-catch opportunities and missed shots at the rim,” said Reinking. “As the game wore on, Ukraine’s pressure took us out of a lot of the things we do. We conceded 24 points off turnovers and you can’t do that at this level.”
Trailing by single digits early in the second half, GB missed 11 shots – including four three throws – and committed four turnovers across the third and fourth quarter interval to emerge 26 points in arrears and with little chance of recuing the game.
The 29-point margin of defeat equals GB’s worst loss in a EuroBasket finals match, which came in 2011 against Turkey by an identical game score.
Standings
| Ukraine | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | +29 |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | +21 |
| Greece | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | +4 |
| Croatia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -4 |
| Estonia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -21 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -29 |
GB’s Group C schedule (times BST): Sat 3 Sep v Croatia 13:15; Mon 5 Sep v Greece; Tue 6 Sep v Estonia 13:15; Thu 8 Sep v Italy (20:00).
