ICELAND RALLY ENDS GB EURO DREAM
- Updated: August 20, 2014
Great Britain’s hopes of featuring next summer’s EuroBasket finals were killed off  as Iceland stormed from 13 down to snatch a 71-69 victory at London’s Copper Box.
Scottish forward Kieron Achara had a team-best 17 points but his side collapsed in the third period as the visitors used a 13-2 run to rally back and move to the brink of qualifying.
It also means winless GB, who finish their campaign in Sarajevo against Bosnia on Sunday, cannot reach the 2016 Olympics – undermining their pleas to reverse the funding cuts imposed by UK Sport.
But although Joe Prunty’s men can point to the absence of NBA players Joel Freeland and Luol Deng, they had only themselves to blame for tamely giving up a 38-28 half-time cushion.
The Icelanders, paced by 23 from Jon Stefansson, hit ten unanswered points and their three-point barrage blew Britain apart.
“It’s a tough loss,†said Prunty. “The third quarter got away from us. There were too many offensive rebounds. We’ve stressed all along, it’s a 40-minute game. The bottom line is they went on a big run in the third.
“We tried to make adjustments but we came up short. We wanted to be at EuroBasket but we’re trying to build the programme.â€
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