EBBA
 

 
 
 
 

England Men
 
 

FRONT PAGE
 
 

 

England rebound to defeat Slovaks







England got just the result they needed in Bratislava to put their European Championship qualifying hopes back on track by pulling off a 73-81 victory over Slovakia.

Having started their Euro qualifying race with loss to Switzerland on Wednesday, Laszlo Nemeth's team could ill afford another defeat so early in the campaign but it did not come to pass with their hosts falling to their own second successive defeat.

After leading by 11 points at half-time, the English looked to have capitulated as they allowed the central Europeans to come back and take a four point advantage in the second half. But the visitors stepped up the their and regained the initiative when Andy Betts made a crucial pair of scores from the foul line to put his country up 73-77 with 2:45 left and they notched the next four points to wrap up the win. 

It was just reward for under pressure Nemeth who had dropped Delme Herriman and replaced him with Stephen Barnes from Wednesday's squad. Four players in double figures for the victors were led by Steve Bucknall on 16 and Kojo Bonsu with 15.  Jozef Lovik's 18 for Slovakia led all scorers.

The English now travel north to Latvia for their next tie in Riga on Wednesday.

In the weekend's other group ties, Switzerland lost 76-91at home to the Latvians while Hungary were edged out 66-67 at home to Croatia.
 


Copyright Britball. Download is subject to Britball's Terms and Conditions