Dutch shine on third day in Frankfurt

The Netherlands’ Mustafa Korkmaz and Italy’s Matteo Cavagnini led their teams with 22 points apiece.

The Netherlands and Italy played out a dramatic game on the third day of the IWBF Wheelchair Basketball European Championships on Sunday (30 June), with the Dutch winning by the slimmest of margins, 59-58.

Italy, which made up a five-point deficit by the start of fourth quarter, thought they’d won it only until the Dutch sank one in at the buzzer.

The Netherlands’ Mustafa Korkmaz and Italy’s Matteo Cavagnini led their teams with 22 points apiece.

Great Britain 75, Switzerland 53 (men)

Great Britain, the defending European champions, had no trouble putting away Switzerland with their fast offense and solid skills on the boards.

Abdillah Jama netted 16 points for the British team, while Philipp Hafeli finished with 14 points for the Swiss side.

Germany 72, Belgium 52 (men)

The German team showed an obvious improvement against Belgium compared to their last game two days ago, as their shots finally went in. Dirk Passiwan lit up the scoreboard for the home team with 16 points, while Nazif Comor led Belgium with 14 points.

“We are quite happy about the game and that we rehabilitated from the match against the Brits,” German head coach Nicolai Zeltinger said.

“I am content with our performance. We know, that we didn´t play on a constant level yet, but most of the game we had a strong defense and applied pressure and therefore we made life difficult for the Belgians.”

Sweden 81, Poland 69 (men)

Following an evenly matched first half, Poland lost its power after the break, allowing Sweden to build a double-digit lead and run away with the match. The top scorer of the Swedish team was Joakim Linden with 21 points, though Krzysztof Bandura bucketed 29 points for Poland.

Turkey 66, France 59 (men)

Despite an intial surge by the French, the Turkish team came out strong in the final quarter to put away the game, led by Ferit Gumus’ 21 points. France was led by Nicolas Jouanserre’s 22-point game.

Spain 75, Israel 57 (men)

After a tight first quarter, Spain got on a hot streak – led by Pablo Zarzuela’s 20 points and surged to victory. Israel was led by Lior Dror’s 12 points.

Netherlands 73, Turkey 22 (women)

The Netherlands’ strong defensive effort seemed to stop Turkey from the get-go, as they were held to just 22 points all game.

Mariska Beijer alone had 25 points for the Netherlands, while Aliye Kocasoy and Naciye Cakir eached had eight for Turkey.

Great Britain 70, Italy 18 (women)

Great Britain came away with more confidence than ever after a clear defeat of Italy.

Amy Conroy got the British team rolling with 17 points, while Eleonora Sarti, the leading scorer for the Italians, was only able to muster six points.

“We are quite happy with the match, because we won very comfortably,” said British head coach Garry Peel.

“We have all our players left on the score sheet, just one missing. Next time I hope we can have all on it and score even more.”