 Luol Deng made his competitive debut against Slovakia |
NBA star Luol Deng scored 21 points as Great Britain began their European qualifying campaign with a 77-52 win over Slovakia in Birmingham. Richard Midgley and Robert Archibald added 14 points each as GB eased to victory after a cautious start.
Chicago Bulls forward Deng missed four of his first five attempts at scoring but was soon finding the basket.
Deng said: "It's going to take a while to gel offensively, but defensively we're doing a good job."
GB coach Chris Finch said: "Our offensive fluidity isn't quite there yet but if we control the boards we'll be okay."
 | Everyone played really hard - we fed off our defence |
Centre Andy Betts praised Deng, saying: "He's going to get pressure and publicity because of how good a player he is.
"He handles it well, and the team performance was good - we didn't give them an easy shot all night."
Great Britain now have a week of training, some of it in Belgium, ahead of their second qualifying game, against Group B leaders Holland in Almere.
They need to win all four of this year's qualifiers against the Slovaks, the Netherlands, Belarus and Albania.
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