Maher demands more despite another EuroBasket win

By Sportsbeat staff

BRITISH women's basketball head coach Tom Maher is famed as a taskmaster - and it's not hard to see why.

I NEED MORE: Jo Leedham top scored for Britain against the Ukraine but coach Tom Maher labelled her performance disappointing

Maher was appointed last year to turn around the flagging fortunes of the British women's team, as they bid to earn their place at the London 2012 Olympics.

His stellar CV included steering Australia to bronze in Atlanta and silver in Sydney and helping New Zealand to a best-ever finish of eighth in Athens.

But his greatest achievement came when he took hosts China - who didn't previously have a developed women's basketball programme - to fourth in Beijing.

Great Britain are in a similar position but despite beating Ukraine 57-49 in their EuroBasket qualifying match in Surrey, Maher was not impressed and demanded more.

"I'm delighted we won, absolutely, but not the way we won," he said.

"Over the course of the game we struggled with the fundamentals, Jo Leedham hit some big shots but I didn't think she had a very good game. 

"We competed well, and Natalie Stafford had some good plays, but we didn't play well and we need to be more consistent.

"Germany winning may work in our favour as we can win the group. We try hard and you can't fault our effort, so that's a positive."

Maher's team are now in a three way tie with Slovak Republic and Germany going into the second half of the qualifying campaign.

Leedham, despite Maher's analysis, led the way for Great Britain as she finished with 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and four steals.

Stafford added ten points, four steals, three assists and as many rebounds, while Azania Stewart had nine points and five boards.