Great Britain went down to their first defeat at the FIBA U16 European Championship Division B in Sarajevo, losing 92-70 to Romania. 6'11 Reading centre Matt Marsh produced 15 points and ten rebounds.
To no one's great surprise, Head Coach James Vear stuck with the same starting five that helped win the opener against Ireland on Thursday; Distras, Eze, Marsh, May and Shodunke getting the nod.
GB's undoubted pace across the court was one of the early features of the game but Romania had similar ambitions and they took an early lead only to be brought back level by an Alex Distras three-point play with 3:10 left in the first.
Having overcome a highly-rated Sweden team by more than 30 points, this was going to be a tough nut for GB to crack, but they were equal to it early on, level at 18-all after one quarter.
An early 8-0 run from Romania produced an early GB timeout in the second. There was no space for GB down the lane to exploit either and the lead became 13. Despite a mini-revival with Distras and Hildreth to the fore, GB would trail by 9 going into the break, 34-43.
GB came out firing trying to close the gap when the players returned to the court but Romania had the focus to maintain that lead and then extend it. An advantage of 16 came with 1:32 remaining and while Hildreth and Marsh were in double-digit scoring territory, there wasn't the same level of execution in comparison.
Trailing 51-69 going into the last, GB were unable to turn the tide with Romania able to capitalise better off turnovers in particular. GB were a little off the pace compared to 24 hours earlier but that shouldn't distract from a fine Romanian performance to win it 92-70.
Marsh's double-double was the chief statistical highlight for GB while Hildreth added 14 points and five rebounds of his own. Once again, the points were shared around - Uduje 9, Distras 8 and Ese 7 - but there will be much to learn from this game for the players.
Full stats are here.
With a 1-1 record now in Group A, GB now face Luxembourg in their next Group A game (Saturday 1530 BST), before Sunday's rest day.
Coach Vear told
gbbasketball.com, "Today was a tough one for us because we were not consistent enough on the defensive end and Romania did a very good job of exploiting that."
"We will regroup and make sure we are prepared tomorrow for Luxembourg"