Jenaya Wade-Fray and her The Standard Life Great Britain Women's Basketball teammates lost 68-54 to Germany in their opening game of the Tournoi 4 Nations in Liege.
Tom Maher's line-up was never able to come back from an early deficit despite a battling rally.
Cheshire-born guard Jo Leedham had a team-high 11 points and 7 rebounds for Great Britain who now face Ukraine in their second game before finishing the tournament against Belgium where Maher will demand a sharper performance from his team.
"We didn't start well today, we weren't ready," Maher commented. "They caught us out and we were left playing catch up the whole game.
"We have to get back to basics, focus on the things we're good at and take it one game at a time from here," he added.
Maher's side briefly led in the opening quarter but eventually went as much as 18 behind as the Germans stormed ahead.
Pulling clear with a 10-0 run, Germany - paced by a game-high 18 points from Romy Bar - punished their opponent's turnovers to extend their advantage to 34-18 at half-time.
However Great Britain used their inside game to steadily claw back the deficit, closing to 48-39 with ten minutes left.
But despite a 32-22 rebounding advantage and the absence of the injured Kim Butler, Maher's side had left themselves with too much to do.
Young star, Temi Fagbenle added 10 points and 7 boards for Great Britain.
With the start of the Olympics exactly eight weeks away on Saturday, guard Rose Anderson commented that the side don't need any extra motivation from Maher to set their sights high: "Even if he didn't give us that message, we'd have that mentality anyway," said the Scot.
"We want to get people behind us. Even if they don't understand the sport, we want to show we have energy and that we're a team people can be proud of."
