England U18 Men emulated their female counterparts by gaining promotion to Division A for 2013 with a 73-59 victory over Finland on Sunday.

 

The victory gave England a third place finish in the FIBA Europe U18 Men European Championship Division B and secured them a spot in Division A for next season.

 

An 11-0 start to the game looked to have given Steve Bucknall's side one foot in Division A, but the Finns retaliated and were just three points adrift after the first quarter.

 

Another large England run - this time 13-2 in the closing minutes of the second period - saw them into a decisive nine point lead at half-time.

 

Finland never gave up, but they were unable to stop England scoring for long enough to get any closer than seven points in the third quarter and England's 15 point lead going into the final period was always going to be enough to see them claim victory.

 

Five English players filled up the stat sheet with four posting double figures - Kingsley Okoroh (15), Rowell Graham (15), Tyrell Isaacs (13) and Luke Nelson (12) - and a fifth (Daivd Sainsbury-Garcia) finishing one point shy of a double-double with 15 rebounds.