Romania Beat Turnover-Prone Brits In Nottingham

Romania won a 75-71 thriller at Great Britain on Saturday evening for their third successive victory in the EuroBasket Women Relegation Round.

In a clash of unbeatens in Nottingham, England, Britain led 69-64 with 3:04 remaining but Romania dug deep, with a Paula Ciocan three-point play closing the gap to just two.

Following two missed jump shots by the hosts, Alexandra Uiuiu tied the contest at 69-69 with a lay-up 2:08 from the end.

Great Britain turned the ball over and then fouled Maria Pascalau, who made two free throws for a 71-69 Romania advantage.

After Pascalau made two more from the stripe for a 73-69 lead, Meagan Hoffman answered with a lay-up for Britain.

Romania missed on their next trip down the floor and Britain rebounded but with 17 seconds to go, Pascalau stole the ball from Kristy Lavin and Uiuiu made another lay-up for the Romanians.

Svetlana Dragusin poured in a team-high 22 points for Romania while Kimberly Butler scored 25 and grabbed nine rebounds for the Brits.

Rosalee Mason added 23 for Britain, who will now be looking over their shoulders at Finland after their narrow escape at Bosnia and Herzegovina to improve to 1-2.

Great Britain out-rebounded Romania 41-31 but turned the ball over 29 times in the game to just 18 for the visitors.

Quotes Great Britain vs. Romania

Head coach of Romania, Gheorghe Mandache:

"It was a normal result for us.  At the end of the game our defence was really important to us and we were really focused on the end of our offense every single time.  It was important not to let our heads go down."

Romania's Monika Isabele Borgia:

"It was a hard game but good for us to win.  We had a plus in defense so I congratulate my team.  They (Great Britain) have a good team and played well but like I said we had a plus in defense and it's an important result for us."

Head coach of GB, Mark Clark:

"Obviously we are really disappointed, it goes without saying.  I thought we put in a great effort to comeback in the second half but the foul outs were crucial in the end and people fouling as they did didn't help us."

"The most important thing to remember is that we are still in control of our own destiny in this group, a win against Finland should secure our status and that's what we will focus on from the moment we step out of this gym."

Great Britain's Kim Butler:

"We lost our mental focus.  It's heart breaking because for the whole game we fought back and controlled it, then we fought back against and weathered their runs and brought our game back.  But we have to learn to take care of the little things - that happened in the summer and it happened again tonight, tThings like turnovers and mental lapses and we were fouling them 90ft from our own basket and giving them easy baskets." 

"Their players made big plays - their taller guard is a Euroleague player and we have to realise things like that.  It was a great effort and we definitely picked it up from the game against Bosnia."