Great Britain had their best game yet at the EuroBasket finals but still lost 93-77 to group leaders Greece in Milan.

Britain’s captain, Dan Clark, set a caps record with his 117th appearance.

Greece gave NBA star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo the day off, despite GB having beaten them in a World Cup qualifier less than a year ago.

The Milwaukee Bucks player had averaged 26 points and 11 rebounds in his previous two games in Milan.

GB responded with a strong first half, with Luke Nelson, hitting four threes in his 15 points before having to be withdrawn from the game as a precaution with three fouls against his name.

Greece’s Euroleague veteran guard Kostas Sloukas assumed control of their team in Giannis’ absence and had 21 points and five assists in a little over 21 minutes.

Trailing 46-43 at half-time, GB reduced arrears to a point as Greece found themselves in the foul penalty in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter,

But they then allowed Greece to feed off their defensive mistakes to hit a 20-8 streak ignited by a pair of Sloukas three-pointers.

Nelson led GB’s scoring with 17 points -15 of them in the first half – Myles Hesson had 13 and Ovie Soko 12.

“They raised the pressure, we didn’t handle the pressure, it’s fairly simple,” said GB head coach Nate Reinking.

“Greece proved they are more than one player,” said Clark, who has been with the national programme for 14 years and is GB’s record points-scorer. “We showed we can compete with them but then we let ourselves down.”

GB’s next game, and perhaps their best chance of a win in the group, is against Estonia.

Standings

GB’s Group C schedule (times BST): Tue 6 Sep v Estonia 13:15; Thu 8 Sep v Italy (20:00).