The penultimate game of the wheelchair basketball at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games saw World Champions Australia take on the host nation Brazil for fifth place.

A thrilling first quarter saw Australia come out firing as they raced to an 11-5 lead; spurred on by the electric home support, Brazil, however, hit back to within two (9-11) before Australia regained control to close out the first quarter by 20-17.

The second quarter saw the battle continue as Brazil not only levelled the game but pushed ahead by 30-28; nevertheless, at half time it was Australia who held the upper hand, having played their way back to a 39-37 advantage.

Brazil levelled the game at the start of the third, but Australia then found another level of play to go up 47-41. With the home support behind them, however, Brazil rallied together once more and, by the end of the quarter, had played their way into the lead by 54-52.

The final quarter was a nailbiting end to end affair with neither team able to earn more than a three point advantage; with 68 seconds on the clock, Australia moved ahead by 69-66, but โ€“ showing incredible composure โ€“ Brazil responded with a fantastic basket from Paulo Cesar Dos Santos, followed by 2/2 from the line from Marcos Candido Sanchez to earn a hard-fought 70-69 victory and fifth place.

Australia Head Coach Ben Ettridge said: โ€œFor us itโ€™s not a change of the guard, but we have seven guys who are first time Paralympians or this is there second one โ€“ it puts us in really good stead for the future. If anything this tournament and result just resolves the group: they want to make things right, they want to be back. Theyโ€™re a great bunch of boys and great support staff and everyone knows where weโ€™re heading, itโ€™s just a really tough one for us โ€“ we just couldnโ€™t put 40 minutes of basketball together in this one. For us now, weโ€™ve got to look at how many games weโ€™re playing internationally now and maybe 10 or 15 a year isnโ€™t enough, weโ€™ve got to get out there and, like a lot of other teams, play 40 or 50 games a year.โ€

Brazil Head Coach Tiago Jose Frank said: โ€œAustralia for us is a top world class team and we began preparing for the Games with a game against Australia. This cycle was initiated with this game against Australia and then we call this game as โ€œthe danceโ€ because it was necessary for all our athletes to step up and bring their best games.โ€

Brazilโ€™s top scorer with 24 points, Leandro de Miranda said: โ€œIโ€™m very happy โ€“ itโ€™s very good to be here. We got fifth place โ€“ so weโ€™re the fifth best team in the world, so weโ€™re feeling very good! Weโ€™ve really improved as a team and weโ€™re really happy about that โ€“ we hope to get better each year and do even better at the next Paralympics.

โ€œThe crowd was like a sixth player for us โ€“ they really helped us.โ€

For full match statistics click hereย https://www.rio2016.com/en/paralympics/wheelchair-basketball-mens-classification-playoff-5-6