Leedham Leads Great Britain Past Germany, 61-59
Franklin Pierce All-American hits last second jumper to give
Britain first qualifying victory
SAARLOUIS, Germany (August 23, 2008) - Franklin Pierce University All-American Johannah Leedham (Ellesmere Port, England/Cheshire Academy), the State Farm/WBCA Division II Player of the Year, hit a last second shot to lift the Great Britain Women's Senior National Team to a 61-59 victory over Germany this afternoon.
Leedham's winning basket capped off a team-high 16 point effort for the Raven, who made 5-of-12 shots from the field, including 2-for-5 from three-point range, and converted all four free-throw attempts. She also collected six rebounds, four steals and two assists.
Great Britain looked to be on its way to a comfortable win over Germany, who was coming off a 93-39 loss to Ukraine on Wednesday, opening a 31-17 edge late in the second quarter. Leedham had ten points in the opening half of play. Germany closed the gap to ten points (31-21) at halftime and opened the second half with a 10-0 run to knot the score and set up a back and forth second half.
"It was a superb team effort, where we really showed heart and character in the final moments," said Leedham. "Although the final shot fell to me, and I am really pleased it dropped, this was ultimately a full 12 man effort and we are all so pleased with the final outcome.
Great Britain's first EuroBasket A qualifying victory gives them
an inside track on at least earning a spot in next summer's extra
qualifying tournament for the EuroBasket Women's Championship in
Latvia. The top two in each of the four qualifying groups go
through together with the best third placed team. The bottom side
in each group will enter the relegation play-offs, with two of
those four sides dropping into Division B. Britain must remain in
Division A to earn an automatic qualifying spot in the 2012 Olympic
Games in London.
"I'm very pleased with our victory," said Britain Head Coach Mark Clark. "This gives us a lot of confidence for the coming games. It was a tough game because Germany came back so many times. But we had Johannah."
Great Britain (1-2, 4 pts) returns to Cardiff on Wednesday, where it will face Israel (2-1, 5 pts) at the Welsh Institute of Sport at 2:30 p.m. (EDT). Israel dropped a tough 66-63 decision to Ukraine in Ramat Gan in today's other Group A qualification contest.
"Personally, I feel that this gave us significant momentum moving into Wednesday at home to Israel," said Leedham. "I know the team are excited about the prospect of playing home again and putting the wrongs of last week right."
Leedham is keeping a weekly journal of her summer experiences with the Great Britain Women's National Team for Franklin Pierce's athletics website.
Click here to view the journal
Leedham led Franklin Pierce (27-6, 18-4 NE-10) to its best season in program history last winter, reaching the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Kearney, Neb., after claiming its first Northeast Region Championship. She led the Northeast-10 for the second-straight year in scoring, with 23.0 points (3rd nationally), and steals, with 3.4 (12th) per game this season, to go with 7.0 rebounds (11th NE-10) and 4.0 assists per game (5th). She led the Ravens in scoring in 32 of their 33 games and set single-season records for points (758), steals (111) and free-throws made (180) - the latter two breaking her own single-season marks.
