Rule Britannia! Brits Clinch EuroBasket Spot

Great Britain confirmed their status as one of Europe's new elite by clinching a spot in their first EuroBasket on Wednesday with a 67-63 triumph at the Czech Republic.

Playing in Division B just one year ago, the Brits improved to 4-1 and sealed first place in Group D of Division A.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu had 12 rebounds for Great Britain in the win.

Luol Deng and Co will try to put an exclamation point on their qualifying campaign by winning their last game in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday.

They will then try and make an even louder statement next summer in Poland where the final round will be staged only there, the Brits will encounter world class opponents like Russia, Spain, Greece, Lithuania, Croatia and Germany.

All of those sides played at this summer's Olympics in Beijing.

Britain, whose only defeat came at Israel in their opening game, a 102-92 overtime setback, became the first team in the group to win on the road.

Deng, the country's Chicago Bulls star, led the way with 21 points and Nate Reinking added 20.

The Brits overcame a terrific effort by the Czechs' Jiri Welsch, a player who scored a game-high 28 but missed a layup in the closing seconds that could have forced overtime.

After Tomás Satoránský buried a three-pointer to give the Czechs a 63-60 advantage with 2:36 remaining, Pops Mensah-Bonsu closed the gap to one with just under two minutes left by making two free throws.

Each team then committed a turnover, and Deng blocked a lay-up attempt by Welsch with 1:10 left.

Flinder Boyd committed his second straight turnover with a bad pass, but Welsch missed a three and fouled Deng.

The Sudan-born forward who moved to London at a young age made both free throws for a 64-63 lead.

After the Czechs missed, they fouled Richard Midgley and he was only able to convert the second for a 65-63 advantage with 10 seconds to go.

The Czechs inbounded the ball to Welsch at midcourt coming out of a timeout and he dribbled in for what looked to be an easy lay-up, using his body to shield himself from Mensah Bonsu.

The Unicaja Malaga swingman laid the ball off the glass too hard with his left hand. Satoránský tried to tip the ball in but missed and Mensah-Bonsu rebounded.

The Czechs fouled the DKV Joventut center and he made both for the four-point win.

Great Britain won, but the game was there for the taking for the Czechs. They missed nine of their 18 (50%) free throw attempts while the visitors sank 17 of 23 (73.9%).

The Brits won despite turning the ball over 24 times compared to just 11 for the home side.

Mensah-Bonsu had 12 rebounds to go with his nine points.

Quotes Czech Republic vs. Great Britain

Chris Finch (Great Britain): I thought that the Czechs were outstanding today. They probably well outplayed us in the second half. Their defense was superb and they managed to take us out of our offensive rhythm and made us play a 5 on 5 possession game. At the end of the game we got into must make situations and my players were up to the challenge.  On the other hand the Czechs missed some shots they would have probably made normally. I saw concentration and determination on the faces of my players all the way till the end of the game. To qualify for the EuroBasket is a great satisfaction for a lot of people that have been around the national team for many summers.

Michal Jezdik (Czech republic): First of all congratulations to Great Britain on making it to EuroBasket. Great Britain showed that they are not a one man team of Luol Deng. Deng is surrounded by a group of quality players. Our plan was to stop their running game because clearly Britain likes to play high scoring, uptempo game. 67 points, in my opinion, is an excellent result defensively against such a talented team. The end of the game could go both ways. Missing one easy shots and poor free throw shooting prevented us from winning. High pressure endings like tonights are however part of important basketball games.