JOHANNESBURG, 4 October 2009– The Sasol South African wheelchair basketball team lost their opening match at the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s Africa World Cup Qualifiers by three points to Algeria .
 The visitors won the tightly contested duel by 71 points to 68 at Mandeville Indoor Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday night.
 The Algerian team raced to a quick lead through the accuracy of number nine, Nabil Guedoune, and dominated early to lead by six points at the end of the first quarter. At the long break, South Africa was chasing a deficit of nine points, down 33-42.
 The home side stepped up their defence and strung together three goals and an equal number of free throws to equalise the score, then kept the visitors to points to finish the third quarter trailing by just one shot.
 With a slender cushion at 52-51, Algeria raised the bar again in the final quarter and forced an early three-point lead. A final buzzer goal from Zouhir Boulafa sealed South Africa ’s fate.
 National coach Viv Sierra admitted that the team was not prepared for the Algerian attack and that a first round defeat was unthinkable.
 “Perhaps we were just a little too confident, but we were not prepared for what Algeria threw at us tonight,” said Sierra. “They caught us off guard, they came out much stronger than we anticipated and played a total game from the start. We took two quarters to catch up and that hurt us in the end.
“We will view this as a harsh lesson, a reality check, and we will just have to come out twice as hard to turn this around, starting with our next game against Kenya .”
 Richard Nortje was the top goal scorer for South Africa with 23 points, while Guedoune was responsible for 26 of Algeria ’s points.
In other matches, Angola scored a seven point win over Kenya (48-41) while Zimbabwe lost in a whitewash 97-8 drumming to Morocco .
Since the withdrawal of Gabon and Nigeria , the remaining countries will play round robin matches this week to determine the semi-finalists for Friday, October 9, with the final round still scheduled for Saturday, October 10. The winner of the Africa World Cup qualifiers will earn a spot in the world class line-up for the IWBF World Championship in Birmingham next year.
 
ENDS
 First round results from the Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s Africa World Cup Qualifiers at Mandeville Indoor Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday, 04 October 2009:
 
Game 1: Morocco 97 defeated Zimbabwe 8
Game 2: Angola 48 defeated Kenya 41
Game 3: Algeria 71 defeated South Africa 68

JOHANNESBURG, 5 October 2009 – The Sasol South African squad rolled to an 88-29 win over Angola to win their second round match at the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s Africa World Cup Qualifiers on Monday.
David Curle and Richard Nortje, with 21 and 19 points respectively, turned the tide for South Africa after their unexpected scare in the opening round on Sunday.
The home side put their 71-68 defeat to Algeria behind them and returned to Mandeville Indoor Stadium with resolute determination. Curle provided the fireworks, igniting the crowd with a three-pointer to open the scoring and South Africa took a comfortable 26-1 first quarter lead.
South Africa stretched their lead to 45-5 at half-time and Nortje, who got off to a quiet start with just two goals in the second quarter, began finding the mark in the third. He scored five times, including a run of four and a three-pointer, and the hosts took a 68-16 advantage into the final quarter.
Riding the energy of the crowd, South Africa carried the momentum into the home stretch to surge ahead for an 88-29 win.
National coach Viv Sierra was pleased with his teams overall performance, as well as the results from some new combinations. Sierra rolled out the untried combination of Curle, Justin Govender, Thandile Zonke, Luvuyo Mbande and captain Marius Papenfus in the first quarter in a move that paid off handsomely for the team.
“We expected to steal the game, but this match was about giving everyone on the team some valuable floor time and exercising some new combinations in preparation for the semi-final and final,” he said.
“I think we lost some rhythm in the third quarter that opened the door a little for Angola , but they guys stepped up and stretched the lead again. Some balls also bounced our way, but overall I think we adjusted well and we were able to test the combinations with success.”
The Sasol South African squad are tied with Angola and trail Morocco and Algeria by one point, having earned one for the loss against Algeria and two points for beating Angola . Morocco won their opening match against Zimbabwe and beat Kenya 90-40 in the second round, while Algeria continued their winning ways with a 122-18 win over Zimbabwe .
South Africa face Kenya on Tuesday and Zimbabwe on Wednesday – two games they technically should win with ease.
However, goal scoring is a major concern and Sierra will use the next two matches to sharpen his key scorers. The home side scored just 39 field goals from 74 chances, missed seven free throws from 13 tries and scored just two free throws from five possibilities.
“I think Richard, David and Stuart (Jellows) are pretty sharp right now and Jaco Velloen will get more game time against Kenya and Zimbabwe; that should set us up well for Morocco on Friday,” said Sierra.
Second round results from the Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s Africa World Cup Qualifiers at Mandeville Indoor Stadium in Johannesburg on Monday, 5 October 2009:
Game 1: Morocco 90 defeated Kenya 40
Game 2: Algeria 122 defeated Zimbabwe 18
Game 3: South Africa 88 defeated Angola 29