A 25-point effort by Simon Munn paced Britain past Israel 82-67 in their fifth and last preliminary round match of the Paralympic men's wheelchair basketball at the USTB Gymnasium on Thursday.
The British were guided by an impressive Jon Pollock, who scored 19 points and gave 13 assists, many of them were for Munn. The centre was great to finish the passes he received in the paint and netted nine of his 12 shots.
"This is personally my third Paralympic Games and I can see our team just keep growing and growing. We have a really great team of 12 guys, and even though there are only five on the court, we know the whole bench is behind us," said British guard Kevin Haynes.
"Our greatest strength is our condition. I think we are one of the fittest teams, and we have four and a half years to get to our physical peak," said Terence Bywater, the forward of Britain.
"We are a lot fitter than Israel. Towards the second quarter it showed because we were able to push the ball and our chairs a lot faster down the court. We could see Israel was exhausted."
"Myself, Simon (Munn) and Matthew (Byrne) all came down with some sort of 48-hour illness which meant we were unable to play against the United States. We had to stay away from the team, and we were unable to train with them. But last night I was feeling about 80 per cent better and today I think the excitement took over and now I feel great."
With this win, Britain finish the preliminary round with a 4-1 record, including a victory over the United States and a loss to Australia. They will play the quarterfinals at the National Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Israel failed in defence during the first 35 minutes of the game, as they allowed Britain to take the ball easily to the paint, but showed some reaction in the last quarter to get as closer as nine points.
Israel were guided by their four best players. Roei Rozenberg scored 17 points, Dotan Meishar posted 16 points, while Lior Dror and Liran Hendel added 15 and 13 points respectively.
Israel placed fourth in group B with a 2-4 record and will have to face the first placed team of group in the quarterfinals on Friday.
(Xinhua News Agency September11, 2008)