Great Britain crashed 84-63 to reigning World champions Spain in their opening game of the Tourneo De Sevilla – a four team warm-up tournament for Poland next month.
The event features three teams pitched together in the same Eurobasket group with Lithuania joining Warsaw bound Great Britain, Spain and Slovenia.
Despite the loss to gold medal favourites Spain, it was very much a moral victory for an under strength Great Britain who kept the home crowd relatively quiet after the usual euphoria that greets the home favourites and their superstars.
Indeed Coach Finch reiterated the need to look on the bright side after an encouraging display.
"In the first half we had chances to be in the game but when you play a team of this calibre they do such a good job at keeping you at bay,"
"They got a ten point advantage and then kept us there.
"There were some positives to take out of the game; it was good having Andy (Betts) and Rob (Archibald) back on the floor plus Nate (Reinking) shot well.
"Rob played well, he was in the right place at the right time. He didn't finish off many plays but this was about getting him out there and getting confidence back.
"As I told the guys after the game it's part of a process, it's not going to come together quickly.
"I'm pretty confident that in a couple of weeks this team will be a different team."
Positively Britain welcomed back a host of players including Robert Archibald, Andy Betts and former BBL duo Flinder Boyd and captain Andrew Sullivan.
In fact there were no fewer than six former BBL players up against a star studded Spanish side that included Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez and Ricky Rubio with one of those former BBL players Nate Reinking claiming 11 points for Great Britain.
Meanwhile off the court there were of course four current or former BBL head coaches on the bench with Tony Garbelotto, Tim Lewis and Nick Nurse joining Chris Finch.
They will certainly have their work cut out trying to come up with a strategy for Great Britain to claim a first pre-Eurobasket win with two games against medal chasing Lithuanian and Slovenia next on the schedule.
Source: www.bbl.org.uk
