Men’s Basketball Roll over South Africa

The Australian Rollers have made an emphatic start to their title defence at the 2012 London Paralympics after recording a 93-39 win over South Africa at the Basketball Arena tonight.

 

With 17 points from Shaun Norris 11 from Brad Ness, these West Aussie’s were two of the catalysts for the Rollers in their 54 point win, with the Australians dominant from start to finish.

 

The Rollers blew the match apart in the second quarter scoring 20 points to South Africa’s four, and there was no let up in the second half, with the Rollers rotating their bench to get vital minutes into the entire playing roster.

 

Whilst Australia was always expected to win, Rollers coach Ben Ettridge was pleased his team had come through with a four quarter effort and no injuries.

 

“We were happy for the first game. We still made a few errors, we’re still working on a few different things but the boys got through unscathed. All those little things that you look forward to on day one we got to do.”

 

Western Australian Norris – who also contributed six assists and four rebounds – said the team will take confidence and look to continue improving throughout the tournament.

 

“Generally our first games, we have to really find where we’re clicking. We came out firing today which is good but I don’t think really the result means much.”

 

“I think we all need to stay very grounded and understand what we need to do as individuals for the team to make ourselves better. Fantastic win but in saying that, we can do so much better as well,” he said.

 

Australia next plays Turkey, who caused a significant upset on day 1, defeating the USA 59-50.