Great Britain defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina this afternoon, 82-74, to maintain its spot in first place in Group D of the 2009 European Championship Qualifying tournament.

Bosnia and Herzegovina played Great Britain tough in the first quarter, trailing Great Britain 20-18 after the first quarter. They continued to play Great Britain tough, making it a tie game, 41-41 at half time.

Unlike in the last game against the Czech Republic, Luol Deng had a strong first half this game. Luol Deng finished the first half with 14 points.

Great Britain started the 3rd quarter on a 17-2 run to race ahead to a 58-43 lead halfway into the quarter. Luol Deng drained two three point field goals during this run. Great Britain led 66-52 after three quarters.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was able to bring the lead down to only 6 points, but Great Britain responded with a tip in by Andrew Sullivan off of a missed Flinder Boyd layup attempt. This was followed by a Nate Reinking layup, a Pops Mensah-Bonsu slam dunk, and a Luol Deng three pointer to cap off the run. This run gave Great Britain a 15 point lead with just under 4 minutes remaining, allowing Great Britain to go into cruise control mode.

Luol Deng finished the game with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Luol Deng looked a bit more comfortable in the first option role today, however, he is still struggling with turnovers. Most of Deng’s turnovers were ballhandling related or traveling related. These are not that indifferent from Ben Gordon’s classic turnovers. These types of turnovers seem to be the result of trying to create offense with the entire defense being focused solely on one player.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu finished the game with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Mensah-Bonsu has slid nicely into the role of Deng’s number two man.

Chris Finch made the determination that Andy Betts was not quite ready to play in this game. Prior to the game, there were reports that Andy Betts might be available for today’s game.

Following this game, Great Britain is in first place in Group D. Both Great Britain and the Czech Republic have 2-1 records, but Great Britain is winning the point tiebreaker by one point (Great Britain has a 17 point differential and the Czech Republic has a 16 point differential).

Great Britain’s next game is on September 13th, against Israel, in Liverpool, United Kingdom.