No fear for Brits ahead of third straight EuroBasket Women appearance
LONDON (EuroBasket Women 2015) - There is no denying that Great Britain are going to find the going extremely tough at EuroBasket Women 2015 next June.
Coming up in Szombathely, Hungary, will be Group C clashes with Russia, Serbia, Latvia and Croatia.
The games will be substantially harder than the ones the British faced this past summer in their qualifying campaign, when they finished second behind Lithuania and ahead of Belgium and the F. Y. R. of Macedonia (MKD).
Russia are No. 5 in the FIBA bwin Ranking Women, Latvia are No. 16 and Serbia, the only one of the Group C opponents to have competed at the FIBA World Championship for Women, are No. 17.
Croatia follow at No 20 and Great Britain are No. 23.
"It is going to be very tough as it contains some very good teams," said Britain coach Peter Buckle.
"We will need to prepare well to achieve our goals, but we are looking forward to competing at the tournament."
An important figure in the national team set-up who should make a big difference is Temi Fagbenle, a senior forward with the Harvard Crimson in American college basketball.
Fagbenle was a surprise inclusion in the 2012 Olympic team when Britain were coached by Tom Maher but she wasn't able to play at last year's EuroBasket Women in France.
An all-Ivy League selection last season as a junior, Fagbenle returned to the team and led Britain in scoring at 16.6 points per game.
She did something at the beginning of December that raised a lot of eyebrows, pulling down a Harvard single-game record 24 rebounds while also pouring in 23 points in a defeat to Temple.
Senior forward Temi Fagbenle broke the Harvard women's basketball record with 24 rebounds, adding 23 points, but... http://t.co/kq3ZCa3ZHU
— Harvard Basketball (@HarvardHoops) December 1, 2014The presence of Jo Leedham, one of Britain's Olympians, will help.
Leedham did not play in the qualifying campaign but she is expected to be in Hungary.
The 27-year-old guard is thinking positive.
"For Great Britain, we know any group we were going to get was always going to be tough," she said.
"However, it is surely a confidence booster for us, knowing that we beat three of those teams at the last edition of EuroBasket Women."
The Brits, indeed, defeated Serbia, Croatia and Latvia at the tournament in France.
FIBA
