Azania Stewart Helps Great Britain WBB to Sixth Place at WUG
Saturday, July 11, 2009 | Women's Basketball
Great Britain head coach Tom Maher was pleased with his side's sixth place finish at the World University Games, after Great Britain lost the playoff game 79-74 in overtime to Poland.
Johannah Leedham again led the scores with 24 points, while University of Florida rising sophomore Azania Stewart (Green Wood, England) posted 16 and captain Chantelle Handy added 11.
Britain ended the game locked at 66-66 and consequently went into overtime, where they lost to the Poles by the same deficit they had led by at half-time.
"Nobody thought we would finish in the top eight, and we did," said Maher.
"Although we lost two games in overtime it was a really good thing for us to be close to those teams, and know that we can compete with that sort of caliber.
"We were seeded to finish in the bottom four and I think we were looked at as a bit of an easy ride but it didn't turn out that way; we definitely gained respect.
"We wanted to get respect and play hard and certainly from day one we played hard.
"Some of the games we won for no other reason than the fact we played hard and that's a great situation. If Britain can play that hard and get better technically and develop some world class players then we will be on the right path.
"Individually we had some good players; Jo Leedham had a pretty good tournament and Kate Butters was a good improver, she went a long way. Azania Stewart was another player who showed she can be an international player."
Leedham averaged 18.9 points across the seven games, while Stewart and Handy both averaged 11.
As stats go, Britain were only bettered in the number of rebounds made by champions USA and bronze medalists Australia, while the Americans and runners-up Russia were the only two nations to make more assists.
Butters, who was singled out by Maher, said: "Losing to Poland was very frustrating because we didn't play how we knew we could in the first game against them, and so everybody was really up and focused on beating them this time.
"Although we are disappointed to go out on a loss, overall I think we've got to be pretty happy with how we've done.
"We were a new team coming together and didn't have that long together beforehand. I think we exceeded a lot of people's expectations of us, so that's always nice, and sixth isn't too shabby either!"
Release issued on behalf of British Basketball
