Rollers Set for Semi-Final Clash with USA Following Win Over Poland

A dominant third quarter performance from Australia has helped the reigning champion advance to the semi-final stage of the 2018 World Championships in Hamburg after recording an 83-70 win over Poland in the quarters.

The Poles enjoyed the better of the early exchanges and showed a particular willingness to try own the paint, through their big 4.0 pointers Filipski and Mosler – who both proved a handful throughout.

Australia trailed by a point at quarter time, but began to assert a level of control on the fixture in the second quarter to establish a slender one-point advantage at the main break.

The Rollers exploited Poland’s lack of depth in the third quarter however, with the big men for the Poles tiring, as the Aussies continued to rotate with success.

The Australians won the quarter by 12 points and split the difference in the final term, to round-out 13-point winners.

Australia’s bench contributed 22 points, to Poland’s four – which was largely the difference in the end.

Tom O’Neill-Thorne top scored for the Australians with 22 points, whilst Bill Latham (18 pts) and Shaun Norris (15 pts) were also prominent.

Continuing a fine individual tournament, Norris also had a match high 11 assists with five rebounds.

Australia next face a crunch semi-final with Paralympic champion USA. The Americans eased through their quarter-final match-up with Argentina, outscoring the South Americans by 41 points.

The Australian Gliders World Championship campaign has come to an end however, after they failed to advance to the quarter-finals following a 48-43 defeat at the hands of Spain.

The Gliders will now face Algeria in the first of the classification matches.