London 2012 Olympics: Anderson’s best game but GB sweat

Edinburgh’s Rose Anderson enjoyed her best game yet in a Great Britain basketball shirt as luckless Team GB slid narrowly to their third group game defeat in the Olympic tournament when they lost 
67-61 to medal favourites 
Russia last night.

The former Edinburgh Kool Kat, who played for Cardiff club UWIC last season, probably put herself on the radar of a number of European club scouts with a lively 16-minute contribution, which included five points from a three-pointer and two steals.

One of those was in mid-court and led to a driving lay-up for two which had the packed 12,000 crowd roaring as GB fought back from 14 down.

But it was probably her 
much-improved defence which earned Anderson, who had 11 minutes in the first game and just under six in the second, her extra playing time.

“That was so disappointing, we could have won that game,” said Anderson. “But they’re Russia, they’re the European champions and ranked second in the world and we did a lot of great things. They’re giants and they can shoot but they’re not the fastest team out there and I was very comfortable with how I was playing, though I got a dead leg.”

With just two games left in the group, neither easy, against unbeaten France tomorrow and Brazil on Sunday, the pressure is growing on the GB team to register a win in their first ever Olympic tournament. The 
players, however, are confident they can still do that.

“Each game we’ve learned a different lesson,” said Natalie Stafford, who top-scored with 18 points in 30 minutes playing time. And GB’s Aussie coach Tom Maher said: “We could have won this game with one extra world class player.”