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Jenaya stars in GB victory

Bermuda’s Jenaya Wade-Fray in action for Great Britain’s women’s team against France at the weekend.

Bermuda’s Jenaya Wade-Fray played a pivotal role in Great Britain women’s team’s impressive 74-67 victory over Olympic rivals France in Sheffield at the weekend.Wade-Fray sunk a game-changing half-court shot on the buzzer to make the score 48-46 to France at the end of the third quarter.The 23-year-old, who scored four points and had one rebound and one assist, believed her long-range basket gave her team a lot of momentum heading into the last quarter.“That shot boosted our confidence a little bit and everybody got a bit excited about it; it’s a great win for us,” said Wade-Fray, who has been named in Great Britain’s Olympic squad.Britain, who bounced back from a 87-63 defeat to Australia on Saturday, rallied from 10 points down in the second quarter and batted all the way through a close second half against France, the eighth-ranked team in the world.“Two years ago, nobody in the basketball world would have said there was a snowflake in hell’s chance of that happening, so it’s been amazing,” said Great Britain coach Tom Maher, who was celebrating his 50th game in charge.“We didn’t get it done against Australia. I know Australia are tough but we still want to be able to do what we’re capable of doing.“Today, we struggled in the first half but in the second half we came out and we were proactive defensively. Our interior defence picked up and that’s hugely rewarding for us because we’ve spent a lot of time on it.”Jo Leedham scored 23 points and Natalie Stafford added 18, while Julie Page added nine and grabbed eight rebounds in a tough fight with France’s big forwards. Gruda led France with 17 points, Celine Dumerc had 13 and Yacoubou 11.“That’s the kind of game I love,’ Page said. “I love to work hard, battle inside so for me personally it was very enjoyable. But I think the team as a whole are like that, we want to battle hard so it was a great match-up for us.”Britain, who beat Angola 74-57 last Friday, will face France again in their penultimate group game at the Olympics.The British men’s and women’s teams were admitted to the Olympics as hosts following a vote by the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) last year.They were only given permission after satisfying the world governing body that they were competitive at international level and had a post-Olympics legacy plan for the game in the UK.Great Britain women’s team’s Olympic schedule:Saturday, July 28 Great Britain v AustraliaMonday, July 30 Great Britain v CanadaWednesday, August 1 Great Britain v RussiaFriday, August 3 Great Britain v FranceSunday, August 5 Basketball, Great Britain v Brazil