Great Britain - Mason mauls Bosnia

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Great Britain took another big step towards avoiding relegation to Europe's Division B with a rout of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sheffield tonight.

Rosalee Mason led six GB players scoring in double figures with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Kristy Lavin added 15, Harriett Yea scored 13 and Stefanie Collins and Meagan Hoffman each had 11.

Kim Butler missed 12 shots but still managed to finish with 14 points. Natasa Mikic was the star of the show for Bosnia, scoring 27 points in the losing effort.

With their 2012 Olympic dreams essentially hanging on this relegation round-robin, GB showed off some red-hot shooting to make it two wins out of two following Saturday's 63-61 victory in Finland.

GB must avoid the drop to the second tier of European basketball if they are to convince FIBA they are worthy of taking the host's spot in London in three years' time. And they are well on course to doing that after a dominant performance here.

GB took control midway through the first quarter with 11 unanswered points, highlighted by a steal and easy lay-up for Mason which put them on top 20-9.

A jump-shot from Collins with five seconds left in the first quarter made it 26-14.

Bosnia briefly rallied at the start of the second, closing the gap to 29-21 as Svjetlana Papcevic sank a pair of free throws.

But teenager Yea came into the game for the first time early in the second quarter and nailed her first three three-pointers to keep Bosnia at arm's length.

That helped GB reel off 12 unanswered points and they were in complete control, up 50-25, at half-time.

GB's scoring rate slowed up in the third quarter as coach Mark Clark turned to his bench, and Bosnia shaved nine points from the lead before the return of Mason and Butler late in the quarter sparked the hosts once more.

GB then scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter as they gave the final score a more emphatic look, the run highlighted by Lisa Hutchinson's superb cross-court pass to give Lavin an easy lay-up.

Hutchinson finished the game with seven assists to go with her six points. The victory puts GB in a great position alongside Romania at the top of the standings.

Romania are up next in Nottingham on Saturday, and they look like being GB's toughest challenge yet after posting an 80-49 victory over Finland earlier today.

Afterwards Great Britain coach Mark Clark believes there is more to come from his team.

"We may not have played at the level we wanted to for the whole game, but when we needed to, when they started to get into it a bit and when it started to get a little bit scrappy in the second half, we stepped it up," he said.

GB took control early, using an 11-0 run in the first quarter to move ahead 20-9.

When teenager Harriett Yea came into the game in the second quarter, her trio of three-pointers helped GB on their way to a 50-25 lead at half-time with the game over as a contest.

Rosalee Mason led six GB players scoring in double figures with 17, while Kristy Lavin added 15, Yea scored 13 and Stefanie Collins and Meagan Hoffman each had 11. Kim Butler missed 12 shots but still managed to finish with 14 points.

"We put a lot of points on the board, and we shared them out a little bit as well," Clark said. "We got points from different people and different places, but our percentages weren't where we need them to be."

GB made 24 of 52 shots (46.1%) from two-point range and eight of 19 (42.1%) from three-point range.

When the game got scrappy, it was Mason who did much of the scrapping, fighting off double and triple-team attention from Bosnia.

Afterwards, the veteran pointed a finger at the officials but could not complain about the outcome.

"It was physical, they were marking me so close, but the referees weren't really calling much," she said. "They weren't calling anything which was a bit weird because we were at home.

"But it's good win, its good because obviously it's one down, and the next game we look forward to is always the most important one.

"Every time we step on the court we're trying to be ready and to execute. Bosnia are not the toughest team in the group but we still needed to be on our toes."