Basketball World Cup qualifying: Great Britain lose thriller in overtime to Greece

Great Britain's men began their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 95-92 overtime loss to group top seeds Greece in a thrilling game at Leicester Arena.

GB trailed by 10 points with 68 seconds remaining but came back to force the extra period, only to lose late in the extra five minutes.

Dan Clark shone for GB with 17 points, as Teddy Okereafor added 16 and Andrew Lawrence and Gareth Murray 14 each.

GB's next qualifying tie is away to Estonia in Tallinn on Monday.

"First of all I'm proud of the guys for the miracle, one-out-of-a-hundred comeback against a team of that level," said GB coach Tony Garbelotto.

"I take responsibility because it was a poor play I called at the end of the overtime. That's a win that GB has to convert."

GB were missing starting centre Gabe Olaseni and had Clark playing with a broken finger, but sensed they had a chance against a second-string Greece team.

Because the qualifiers clash with Euroleague games, the continental club tournament that is in a standoff with governing body Fiba Europe, Greece fielded only one player - Giannis Bouroussis, who top-scored with 32 points - from the 12 they took to September's Eurobasket finals.

The teams were level at half-time and in such a close game, any run of substance in the final quarter was likely to take its toll.

So it proved, with Greece's 14-4 sequence in the middle of the fourth quarter brought them a 75-63 lead with three minutes remaining.

But GB finished with a stirring 13-3 run, including three baskets in the last 20 seconds, to force overtime.

In the extra period, the hosts did not trail until Giannis Athinaiou hit a three-pointer with 3.4 seconds left of the game to give Greece the win.

"That loss sucks even more for me because I've played them so many times and now I play there [in Greece for Kymis] so I know the players," said Okereafor.

"We have to recover tomorrow, then get on the plane and get ready to play Estonia."