Germany won their third match out of five as they downed Sweden 78-72 in their final group A preliminary game of the Paralympic wheelchair basketball Thursday at the National Indoor Stadium.
Forward Dirk Passiwan led the German offence with 21 points, including a pair of free throws in the last seconds of the game that secured Germany's win. Germany also scored 19 second chance points.
Although guard Hussein Haidari and forwards Joachim Gustavsson and Peter Kohlstrom combined for 59 points, Sweden missed a few key shots in the fourth quarter, including one following a fast break, and thereby lost their potential advantage.
"If we lost the game, we couldn't go to the quarterfinals. We were so close to winning. I still don't know what our team's next step is. Maybe we are going to play for ninth place or something else," said Swedish center Dan Wallin.
"We played very well today. The teams are always so close. We played more like a team and we tried whatever we could to win. But it just didn't work.
"I committed too many fouls in the last quarter and I missed two shots. We just needed a few more points to win," he added.
Germany finished preliminaries with a 3-2 record, while Sweden, European champion, was 1-4 and failed to advance for the quarterfinals.
(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2008)