Canada hit back in game two with GB

Great Britain’s women basketballers suffered a 63-50 defeat in a friendly against Canada at Meadowbank yesterday in the latest stop on their round-the-world trip to the Olympics.

Having won 70-57 against the same opponents 24 hours earlier, it was disappointing but coach Tom Maher admits he would rather lapses took place now rather than at the games.

The Australian, bound for the fourth Olympics of his career, is set to decide on his 12-strong squad for London within the next 48 hours. “It’s never easy,” he admitted of a process that will see the dreams of two players extinguished. Rose Anderson, the only Scot left in contention, can only hope now that she has made a convincing case.

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The former Edinburgh Kool Kats guard scored six points over the two ties and, despite misses and mis-steps, looks likely to retain her place. Britain does not have the star quality of the Americans and others. To compensate, much has been done to instil a blue collar ethic.

“Player for player, we know that teams are classified as better than us,” said Anderson. “We’ve got no superstars. But everyone has a job to do and that’s to work hard and be hard-nosed. But we can take some lessons from this.”

Principally, that lapses will be punished at the highest level. Ahead 6-0 before Natalie Stafford opened GB’s account in the third minute, Canada surged clear, increasing their advantage to as much as 28-6 early in the second quarter.

However, the hosts’ resistance was impressive. A 10-1 burst helped make it 32-24 at half-time and baskets from both Stafford and Anderson saw the gap closed to four in the third quarter. Ultimately, consecutive three-pointers from Courtnay Pilypaitis in the fourth gave Canada a decisive push.

“They were really physical,” said Jo Leedham, who matched Stafford’s game-high tally of 14 points. “They gave us a taste of our own medicine. We took it and didn’t swing many punches back. At the end of the second quarter we put them under pressure and cut the lead but we made too many mistakes.”

Pilypaitis paced Canada with 13 points.