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The Australian Rollers men’s wheelchair basketball team received a 66-38 pre-finals touch-up from a finely-tuned USA at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza on Sunday afternoon, but captain Shaun Norris isn’t overly concerned about the momentary dip in form.
The Rollers were never in the hunt against the reigning Paralympic champions in the Pool B clash, which has little influence on the Australians’ fortunes other than who they might play in the cross-over.
The US led the Rollers 17-15 at quarter time before the Australians’ offense fell away in the second quarter and the US sealed the half with a three pointer from Jacob Williams to lead 38-26 at the main break.
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The Rollers’ defensive intensity lifted in the third quarter, but the US still found ways to score, getting out to a 25-point lead before the buzzer for the final break sounded with the score at 54-30.
The Americans won the final quarter 12-8 to seal a big win.
“We went away from what works for us today. It’s disappointing,” Norris said.
“We’ve got to regather, look at some video, compose ourselves and get at it tomorrow [against Great Britain]. We know our style of basketball works, we just didn’t play very much of it.”
The Rollers shot 18 from 60 – just 30 percent – from the field, and two of eight from the free throw line.
“The shooting percentage was a product of how we played the game today. We didn’t really find our spots or gel or find our style of game,” Norris said.
“Hats off to USA, they played some good ‘D’ on us and took us out of our game. But, in saying that, we need to be a bit smarter in how we get to our spots. But tomorrow’s another day.”
The Rollers next assignment is against World Champions Great Britain at Ariake Arena on Monday at 5.15pm (6.15pm AEST).
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By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 29 August 2021
