Johannesburg, 24 January 2021: Fresh from collecting maximum points on day 1, the South African Wheelchair Basketball teams endured a mixed bag of results as the Women’s team went down to Algeria while the Men’s team beat the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Men’s team started off a bit slower than they would have liked on the tricky surface prepared in Addis Ababa. They were soon able to find their rhythm, draining buckets from various angles and stifling the DRC attack before running out comfortable 72-29 winners.
The South African Men’s team has now collected maximum points from their opening two fixtures following their walkover win against COVID-19 ravaged Algeria yesterday.
Meanwhile the Women’s team was not so lucky as they came unstuck against tournament favourites Algeria.
The Algerians got onto the scoreboard almost immediately, pulling out a 22-2 lead midway through the first half before the South Africans showed improvement and started putting some respectability on the score line.
However, they couldn’t defeat the clinical North Africans who eventually ran out 48-32 winners.
The Women’s team will have a bye tomorrow as the Men’s team will be taking on tournament hosts Ethiopia at 4pm South African time.
All South African matches are live streamed on the Wheelchair Basketball SA page on Facebook.
