German women start Euros on a roll

"For me it was the expected game just like I imagined. I am pretty satisfied. We had a couple minutes in the beginning where we had little trouble finding in the game. But we accelerated the pace. It was a good first game."

Four games were played over the first two days of the 2013 IWBF Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Frankfurt, Germany, with the host nation’s women’s team highlighting the action thus far with a 74-37 victory over France.

France could not keep up with the defending Paralympic and European champions on Saturday (29 June), as Germany’s Mareike Adermann netted 20 points and Marina Mohnen added 19.

The French effort was led by Fabienne St Omer Delepine’s 11 points.

“For me it was the expected game just like I imagined,” Germany’s head coach Holger Glinicki said. “I am pretty satisfied. We had a couple minutes in the beginning where we had little trouble finding in the game. But we accelerated the pace. It was a good first game.“

Netherlands 70, Switzerland 44 (men)

The Netherlands rolled to a decisive victory in their first game, capitalising on Swiss turnovers.

Mustafa Korkmaz led the winning team with 21 points, while Paul Toes chipped in 13 and Anton de Rooij had 12.

“Today nobody played on their normal level, which they showed the last weeks,” Swiss head coach Stefan Donner said. “It is complety obvious that you lose such a game this high.“

Italy 73, Belgium 56 (men)

After an even first half, Italy got a move on and slowly pulled clear of the Belgians with nice team play. Galliano Marchionni was the top scorer for the Italians with 25 points, while Nazif Comor led Belgium with 19 Points.

“We are very happy to start with a win,” Marchionni said. “Now we have to continue with this mentality, because every European team is very strong and hard to play. So, we will see … “

Great Britain 74, Germany 51 (men)

Right from the beginning of the tournament’s opening game on Friday (28 June), Germany did not seem to find their groove, and thus Great Britain’s strong defense worked and their shots trickled in.

Ghazian Chouhdry hit up the scoreboard with 19 points for Great Britain, while Thomas Bohme had 18 for Germany.

“I think it was a really good start to the tournament,” Great Britain’s Joe Bestwick said. “Obviously we wanted to get a win here. But it was more about how we played. It was a good start.”