Lorenzo disappointed with Israel loss in basketball World Cup qualifier
BySportsbeat
Published 24/02/2018 at 15:41 GMT
New head coach Alberto Lorenzo endured a miserable start as Great Britain suffered a narrow 82-75 loss to Israel in their third World Cup qualifier.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The British side are lounging at the bottom of Group H ahead of another qualifier against Greece on Sunday in Heraklion.
Lorenzo, who stepped up from his assistant role after the departure of Tony Garbelotto earlier this month, watched his side scupper a ten-point lead in the third quarter.
"First of all, I would like to congratulate Israel," said Lorenzo.
"I think they played a really smart game and they moved their players perfectly right until the end.
"For us, I thought we did a good job in the first half and during the first minutes of the third quarter.
"But, we kind of lost that advantage, so for me, that is [where we lost] the momentum of the game.
"At that time, the mind of the players switched and we started to feel like we were losers.
"At the end we were in a situation of switching on defence and we were still involved in the game, but we made many turnovers in the fourth quarter."
Former coach Garbelotto rocked the basketball community when he resigned two weeks ago, citing personal reasons, and was simultaneously sacked by Basketball Scotland.
Lorenzo will be hoping to smooth over this difficult period and lead Great Britain to a first win of their World Cup qualifying campaign when they face group leaders Greece on Sunday.
Sportsbeat 2018
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