The Amakrokokroko wheelchair basketball team’s dreams of Paralympic qualification and a ticket to Athens suffered a setback after the South African side was thumped 78-57 by a well-organised Iran team in Vodacom Wheelchair Basketball Challenge action at Mandeville on Tuesday night.
Despite the never-South Africay-die attitudes shown by South Africa’s Italian-based professional league players in Richard Nortje and Marius Papenfus, and slick handling by Nick Taylor, with vice-captain Shaun Hartnick and Ralph Williams ever present, the visitors — cheered on by a large Iranian following — got off to a quick scoring start and led 19-11 after the first quarter.
South Africa tried to keep the Iranian attackers as wide as possible in a bid to control the centre part of the court, but the white-clad Iranians had all the answers for the questions posed by South Africa and passed the basketball examination with ease, in being 41-30 ahead at halftime, before taking a 65-42 lead at three-quarter time.
In the earlier match, Algeria recorded their first win of the Vodacom Wheelchair Basketball Challenge by outplaying Jordan 67-45 after having held a 14-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, 21-18 advantage at half-time, and being 29-23 up at three-quarter time.
While Iran remain unbeaten in the tournament after Monday’s win over Algeria, South Africa’s Amakrokokroko will have to beat Algeria in the Vodacom Wheelchair Basketball Challenge fixture on Wednesday at Mandeville to push into second spot in the tournament, assuming Iran will take the top placing in what should be a fairly comfortable triumph over Jordan in Wednesday’s match. — Sapa
Vodacom Wheelchair Basketball Challenge programme:
Wednesday February 4: Jordan vs Iran (6pm), South Africa vs Algeria (8pm)
Thursday, February 5: Third vs second (6pm), fourth vs first (8pm)
Friday, February 6: Third vs fourth (4pm), first vs second (7pm), closing ceremony (8.30pm)