Denmark 91-123 England
For the first three quarters, we didn’t assert the dominance I expected considering we had home court advantage. We struggled to build a lead that felt comfortable as Denmark scored with relative ease and our offence didn’t fire as I had hoped, until finally in the fourth quarter, things seemed to click as we out scored them by 25 points and built some good PD to climb the standings. With Denmark’s guards having lower game shape, it made sense to attack outside with Duguid, Kemp and Kanjilal in optimum shape. I did expect an inside attack from Denmark and did contemplate an inside GDP, but felt it wasn’t worth the risk. For the second game running, our opponents scored pretty well considering how low their PP100 was.
On Monday, we face another Scandinavian nation in Sweden. Two seasons ago we narrowly beat them at the same stage in the Consolation and I expect another close affair. They’re one place above us in the rankings so it’s a key game for both teams.
In other games, Italy won a close fought battle against Czechia whilst Estonia picked up a great home win against one of the favourites Israel. Russia handed a second loss to Türkiye and Argentina beat Romania.