But coach Chris Finch believes his side have taken a "big step forward" after they bounced back from last night' disappointing 70-56 defeat to Poland.

 

 

The addition of captain Andrew Sullivan to the ever increasing list of absentees made the performance even more creditable.

 

They pushed Turkey, one of Europe's leading sides, all the way before finally being edged out in the last two minutes of an often feisty game, which included one scrap and saw Turkey coach Bogdan Panjevic sent to the dressing rooms.

 

Finch said: "This was a big step forward for us, certainly in comparison to last night.

 

"Last night we played about half the game well, I thought tonight with the performance we were right there all the time.

 

"It didn't always look pretty but it's still early for us in our preparation.

 

"We competed, our defence was solid and offensively we took better shots, we just couldn't always get them to go down.

 

"Then, down the stretch, you see a class team able to get production from all five members on the floor, but we did a good job in taking them out of their game."

 

With Sullivan, at least temporarily, joining a list of absentees that also includes Luol Deng, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Robert Archibald, and Andy Betts, Britain needed big performances from the fringe players who had struggled so badly against Poland last night.

 

But Flinder Boyd added energy and Nick George proved more effective tonight en route to a team-high 11 points.

 

Finch said: "I thought we hustled and played really hard tonight.

 

"We just had more purpose to what we're doing."

 

The game carried an edge to it that spilled over in the third quarter when young guard Justin Robinson got in a scrap which came soon after Panjevic's ejection.

 

Finch said: "That was a really rough exchange.

 

"There was a travel, an elbow, a shove, another elbow but to be quite honest it was just an escalation of what had gone on before. It was unnecessary and it was unfortunate."

 

Britain eventually succumbed to a team which boasts the sort of NBA class Britain are missing right now with Deng and Mensah-Bonsu out.

 

Toronto Raptors star Hedo Turkoglu (pictured) had been in foul trouble after picking up a technical in the earlier scraps, but still chipped in with 15 points for his team, including some key free throws as they salted the game away.

 

But the 29-year-old came away impressed with what he saw from the hosts.

 

Turkoglu said: "They don't have all their guys at the moment, but the guys who have been given the opportunity want to show they're good players, they want to compete and they did that tonight.

 

"They played hard and were together as a team."

 

Turkey are one of the toughest tests on GB's warm-up schedule, although world champions Spain -

who are in Britain group at the EuroBasket - await in Seville next week.

 

Next up are Israel, 86-72 winners over Poland today, in GB's final game on home soil tomorrow night.

 

Finch said: "I told our guys this was a big step forward and something to build on but tomorrow we've got to go a step further.

 

"Moral victories are still losses, and tomorrow we need to go and get a win.

 

"The guys are not happy they played well and lost, but I think the team is new and they need to play well to get confidence, and then the wins will come."