"Obviously I'm disappointing in the terms that we should have finished in a better position, but unfortunately we put ourselves in a situation where our destiny was in someone else's hands and it didn't go our way" said Lewis.
"But we have to put it in perspective as we've just had the best finish in the five years of the programme, and we've really achieved something over the last six weeks.
"We were in a very strong Division B, and the players did an exceptionally good job. We can't dwell on the negatives, and we've made real progress."
Lewis was delighted with the way his team gelled: "Ovie [Soko] and Alex [Marcotullio] have come into the programme and made a huge contribution, but it was a real team effort".
"I think the loss against Austria brought us together as a team, and they battled together until the final whistle against Israel. We had a great family spirit and some real chemistry, and we had that throughout the competition.
"The core of the team are back next year, and that gives us something to build on. The older players will have the chance to progress to the under-23 programme and I have no doubt that a number of them will go on to make a major contribution to senior men's basketball for GB."
While his team ultimately came up short in their bid for promotion, Lewis had praise for the under-20 women's side who won their Division B tournament and will play in the top flight next summer:
"Damian [Jennings] and his team have done a fantastic job to win the tournament, and I'm delighted for them. I think it shows the progress that the GB programme is making, we're heading in the right direction."
The GB coach believes that it's tougher for this country to succeed in European competition than for our competitors: "We face challenges that other countries don't have" he said.
"I think we had eight players who don't play their basketball in this country. Across the rest of the tournament I think there were only 11 other players who play outside of their home country, and it makes it difficult to get the squad together. That makes the women's achievement even better, and the fact that we were within a whisker shows that real progress is being made."
Soko led GB in scoring, finishing fourth in the tournament with an average of 19.1 points per game as well as adding 6.25 rebounds, 2.25 steals (third in the competition) and two assists.
GB's rebounding was led by Will Neighbour who finished with 7.75 boards per game as well as 15.1 points and 1.25 blocks to rank sixth in the championship.
Marcotullio added 13.9 points per game and scored the fifth most three-pointers as he finished with 21 in the competition.
Andrew Lawrence completed the team's leading scorers with 12.5 points per game, adding 2.7 steals
