Both Jenaya Wade-Fray’s coach Tom Maher and teammate power forward Kim Butler are looking for an improved team performance as GB Standard Life women travel to Germany for tomorrow night's EuroBasket qualifier.
GB were edged out 76-67 by Slovak Republic at the NIA on Saturday, and Maher knows his team need to work together better if they are to progress to the finals.
"We have to learn to play together a bit more. We go for too many home runs, but the thing about us if we have a lot of players who are stars in their team. We have to learn to share the ball a bit more, they're not selfish we just have to stop trying to hit home runs all of the time. That's not going to get it done, you can't put a whole bunch of go-to guys together and expect it to work if you don't share the ball."
Butler agrees with her coach: "For our first game I feel we worked hard, I don't know if we played together all the time on the offensive end. We lost the rebounding effort, and they got some important boards. We need to gel more on the offensive end, and stop forcing the ball. We showed some heart, they're definitely beatable, a couple of free-throws at the end were crucial."
Germany made a winning start in their bid to reach Poland 2011 with a 60-56 victory in Ukraine on Saturday. An 18-12 fourth period proved key for the Germans who were led by veteran Linda Frohlich who finished with 15 points and six rebounds, and Romy Bar who added four rebounds and as many assists to her 14 points.
GB also met the Germans in the 2009 EuroBasket qualifiers, and a 61-59 GB victory proved to be the only win of a 2008 summer which saw several narrow losses. Jo Leedham's last-gasp shot gave Britain a thrilling road win as she sank a jumper in the final seconds to secure victory just when it looked as though the game was heading for overtime.
The return in Wales saw GB lose another thriller as Sarah Austmann's three-pointer with just over a minute remaining gave her team a 74-72 victory.
That win put the Germans into the Additional Qualifying Round where they won two of their four games, but didn't progress any further.
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