Deng delivers again to book Great Britain another EuroBasket shot

By Sportsbeat staff

LUOL Deng broke his own Great Britain scoring record as a 38-point haul booked Chris Finch's team their qualification to next summer's EuroBasket finals.

STAR MAN: Luol Deng produced a stand out performance as Great Britain reached the EuroBasket finals for the second consecutive time

Watched by fellow NBA star Ben Gordon - who hopes to make his long-awaited British debut in 2011 - the Chicago Bulls forward produced another stand-out show, adding 13 rebounds to his impressive contribution in Liverpool.

Britain trailed Bosnia and Herzegovina 81-78 with 57 seconds left but Deng and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who scored 32 points and drained the free throws that forced overtime, came good when it mattered, the final scoreline a heart-stopping 94-85.

The victory rightly had Finch beaming and licking his lips at the prospect of adding Gordon to his ever-improving roster next summer in Lithuania.

And it wasn't the first time Great Britain have come from behind in a qualifying campaign that has underlined their self-belief, a valuable positive when it comes to persuading world governing body Fiba that they deserve a hosts' invite to the London 2012 Olympics.

"Our team has great character. We all believed we could win every game even when we were down late. We responded well and made the hustle plays," said Finch.

"Drew Sullivan got good stops, Pops made some huge plays and Luol was superb for us. But over all we have a mentally tough group of players.

"We said to our guys that all the teams we played against had the ability to hit shots. We had to hang in there till we got a rhythm going. Every time we had an eight or nine point lead we let them have it back. 

"But there was a lot of pressure on us and we hung in there and it was a great win."