February 11, 2013: Connor Marshall celebrated his first starting-five appearance in the England national team. And what better team than Belgium, his adopted country, to face to him. Moreover, in the opposite team there was his guide, Mees Freire, and his 92 caps.
Connor was a little bit nervous, quite logical, and he started the game with a poor 2/7, but he ended well the first half with 12 points (4/9), 1 rebound and 2 assists. On the other side of the field, a very motivated Freire made a very similar performance in the scoring (8 points, 4/8), but was much more aggressive in the rebound: 4 OR's! The score was very close: 53-54.
The 3rd quarter was this one of Freire, who scored 11 points for a total of 19 points (9/16). But now Marshall was well in the game and added 6 points to his personal score (7/13). At this time, Belgium leaded by 4.
The last quarter of Connor was unbelievable! He missed no shot and was the clutch player of his team, especially in the last minute, despite all the efforts of Freire. He made the parity at 36 sec from the end, and scored a buzzerbeater to reply to Freire who had given 2 points ahead for Belgium, and sent his team to overtime!
Unfortunately for Connor and England, his coach decided to not use him during almost all the OT. Belgium won the game 124-128 and Freire ended with 29 points (14/22), 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Connor was the best scorer of the game with 30 points. He catched also 5 rebounds and gave 5 assists (1 turnover, 1 steal and 1 block).
A legend is born