Germany defeat sets up must-win clash for ParalympicsGB women’s wheelchair basketball squad

**ParalympicsGB face a must-win game against Australia on Friday to keep their women’s wheelchair basketball quarter-final hopes alive after slipping to a 53-35 defeat to Germany. **

After losses to Canada and Japan earlier this week, Great Britain were looking to get their Tokyo 2020 campaign up and running in earnest but came up against an efficient German buzzsaw.

Germany raced into an 18-7 lead by the end of the first quarter and extended that to 30-17 by half-time.

A low-scoring third quarter saw the teams combine for just 12 points and although ParalympicsGB saved their strongest quarter until last, it wasn’t enough to stop an 18-point defeat.

Baskets proved hard to come by at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, with no British player reaching double figures in points, but with four of the five teams advancing from Group A to the knockouts, all is not lost.

Victory over similarly winless Australia on Saturday would see the Brits into the last eight, where they would play the winners of Group B and Robyn Love knows the importance of the fixture.

“I actually think we played a lot better than we have done in the previous two games, although the score didn’t quite reflect that and we didn’t have the luck of the bounce,” said Love.

“To be honest, I’m proud of the performance we put forward. Tonight, we’ll have a cup of tea and talk about how we can build on it going into tomorrow because it’s a must-win game.”

Love top-scored for ParalympicsGB against Germany with eight points and her side will need her to find her range against Australia to secure the all-important victory.