Basketball men and women progress to quarter-finals

By Paul Carter

Great Britain’s men’s wheelchair basketball team have secured themselves a favourable position for a good draw in the quarter-finals after a well-earned 69-53 win over Israel.

It was a fourth win out of five for GB at Beijing’s National Indoor Stadium after beating Canada, and securing a stunning victory over the USA.

Their only defeat has come against the reigning silver medallists Australia.

“It’s always a dog fight against Israel,” said guard Peter Finbow.

“You need to grind them down and take the big guys out, and we managed to do that today. It was a pretty even match but in the end our superior fitness showed.”

USA will now take on Australia later today (Thursday) to determine the final group positions.

“Whoever we get in the quarter-finals we’re ready for them,” said Finbow.

“The Aussies looked a very good side,” said Finbow. “They played very well against us but we are ready to play anybody.”

The women’s team were not so fortunate in their final encounter, going down narrowly to the European champions, Germany.

The 50-42 defeat means the team will now face pool B winners Japan in the quarter-finals.

Britain kept pace with the Germans for large periods of the game, going in only a point behind at half-time, and had seemed to overcome their shot-clock and turnover problems from the previous day.

However, despite a late flurry, the Germans proved too strong.

"We know the Germans are capable of scoring 70-odd points against us so to restrict them to 50 was quite an achievement," said forward Sally Wager.

"We played Japan in some warm-up matches before the tournament so we know they are not unbeatable. They’re strong for the whole game so we have will have to maintain our concentration all the way through. We're confident we can given them a game."