BASKETBALL: GB thrash Cyprus to keep EuroBasket dream alive

Great Britain’s basketballers moved one step closer to the 2021 EuroBasket Qualifiers after a convincing 84-47 victory over Cyprus in Belle Vue last night.

Myles Hesson led the way for the hosts in front of a noisy crowd – scoring 18 points. He was supported well by Ovie Soko and Andrew Lawrence (11 points).

Dan Clark and his team put in an impressive performance, dominating large periods of the game, looking good in both attack and defence.

They finished the opening quarter with a 12-point lead and never looked back as they did nothing but extend their lead to put the Cypriots out of sight.

Another stellar period meant that they took a 21-point lead into the half-time interval with the score reading 45-24.

Hesson rubbed salt into the Cyrus wounds by adding another nine points to the GB tally as they led 62-39 heading into the final quarter.

The away defence crumbled under further pressure, conceding 22 points in the final quarter to round off an evening to forget for Andreas Sizopoulos’ men.

GB now travel to Austria on Sunday in their final pre-qualifier. In order to progress to the next stage, the margin of victory must be 15 points or greater.

Failure to beat Austria on Sunday would mean that they will enter a third round of pre-qualifiers – facing either Luxembourg, Romania or Kosovo.