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England's hopes of taking a place in next summer's European Championship finals in Turkey took a positive upturn on Saturday night with Laszlo Nemeth's men securing a deserved 74-62 victory over Slovakia at the Coventry Skydome.
Following England's 53-61 win in Switzerland in mid-week, it gave the hosts their fourth victory in the qualifying group with Roger Huggins named MVP for an inspired 20 points and 10 rebounds performance in a match which was decided in the fourth quarter as the hosts shut up shop on defence.
"We are starting to believe in ourselves," said the ex-Sheffield star. "We know we will always be in the game as long as we're playing solid defence."
England had taken an 11 point lead in the first half but the winless Slovakians stormed back to level at 27-27 just before half-time.
The home side re-grouped to go into the break 35-30 in front, building up a double digit lead again when captain Steve Bucknall notched a three pointer to make it 53-43 in his side's favour.
Again Slovakia recovered to move to within three but as the final quarter neared its end, Huggins and Dorsey combined for a pair of dunks which helped to re-establish their advantage for good.
Coach Nemeth was pleased with the performance of his team.
“Defense wins games. The guys worked extremely hard and proved that here tonight. We have the personnel to make things happen. Everyone played well and I wonder how good they could be if we had the chance to get together more often.
"It's not impossible to make it to Turkey. I and the players will do everything in our power, but getting to where we want to be with the hurdles we face is extremely difficult."
In other results, Croatia kept their perfect record intact with a 79-58 home win over Hungary while Latvia recorded an easy 92-67 win over Switzerland in Riga.
England continue their campaign when they meet the Latvians at the Skydome on Wednesday evening. A win for the English would put them in pole position to take the second qualifying spot behind the Croats with only an away tie against the leaders and a home meeting with Hungary left to play next February.
“The guys don’t really talk about making it to the finals," Huggins added. "We can’t look to far ahead. There is some hard work to do. We must focus on the next game against Latvia. We believe in ourselves and our Coach.”
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