The match, in the four-nation Game On tournament, was the first of Britain's warm-up games for the EuroBasket - now only three weeks away - but without their star names, the home side struggled to compete.

 

 

With the absence of the injured Robert Archibald and the unavailable Pops Mensah-Bonsu only compounding the withdrawals of NBA stars Luol Deng and Ben Gordon, coach Chris Finch is finding out perhaps a little more than he wanted to about his fringe players.

 

As well as the hosts were able to compete early, when the game was put in the hands of those further down the bench, they could not live with the hosts of next month's EuroBasket.

 

Britain twice pulled out six-point leads in the first-half, but their lack of depth was exposed by Poland as they were reeled back in to ultimately find themselves trailing 30-27 at half-time.

 

Joel Freeland will take on the role of star man with so many players missing, and it was his lay-up that put Britain up 24-18.

 

But once Finch gave the likes of Freeland and Andrew Sullivan a rest, Poland reeled off a 12-1 run - aided by some careless fouls in the Britain defence - to take a 30-25 lead.

 

Robert Hanke - one of those trying to impress Finch - made a lay-up before the buzzer to cut the gap to three.

 

Fans got to see both sides of Nick George's game.

 

The explosive forward tried a few extravagant moves and finished the half as Britain's top scorer with seven, but he was also guilty of a pair of costly turnovers as Poland clawed their way back.

 

The visitors began the second half brightly, profiting from Britain's turnovers to score the first four points of the half and build a seven-point gap, 34-27.

 

It then got worse for the hosts as Sullivan and Dan Clark had to sit with foul trouble.

 

Although Tafari Toney sank a pair of free-throws to cut the gap to four, at 38-34, Poland then scored 17 unanswered points, with the run including seven from the American-born guard David Logan, who only received his Polish citizenship at the start of the month.

 

Finch (pictured) was not too downhearted, however.

 

He said: "Yeah, there is no question that having such a big chunk of the team does have an effect but that's not to say there are not players here who are are talented enough to get it done.

 

"Maybe one or two of those who came in were inexperienced and some combinations were not properly tried but that's what these pre-season games are for.

 

"And let's get one thing straight.

 

"All those players missing are missing for legitimate reasons - they are all still very much behind the team.

 

"Some of the executions were not great and we missed ten free throws but that's to be expected in the first game - that's basketball.

 

"And we still have plenty of postives to take - Joel [Freeland] played very well.

 

"Every game that we play is huge for us in terms of development and today was no different.

 

"But to get good at something like basketball you need to grow organically and that takes time."

 

In the evening's other match Turkey beat Poland 85-69.

 

Britain will play Turkey in tomorrow's match while Israel take on Poland.