The Rollers overcame a preliminary round loss to defeat European Champion Italy in emphatic fashion, 65-32.

The majority of the damage was done in the third quarter when the Rollers outscored Italy 29-3 for the term and extend their lead from nine points to 35.

The Rollers shot 53 per cent from the floor and had three players in double digits. Brad Ness led the boards with 16; Justin Eveson took 14 while Shaun Norris grabbed 10. The Australian defence forced Italy to remain in single figures of which Mohamed Bargo and Matteo Cavagnini both top scored on six.

Dylan Alcott said, “It’s good preparation for the World Championships. They (Italy) are a great team and so it's good to get a win over them. We definitely did not go into that game underestimating them.

“To get the confidence of the win from that game will be a massive boost ahead of the World Championships for sure. We’re going back to Australia on Tuesday, where we will go to a performance camp, before returning to Birmingham in three weeks time.”

By contrast the women’s Gliders team was made to work hard in the first quarter by GB, the hosts had a 6-5 lead at the first quarter, but the Australians soon got into their stride and amassed a comfortable lead, taking out the Bronze medal 59-24.

It was a tremendous defensive effort from the Gliders as Cobi Crispin recorded 14 points, Liesel Tesch 12 and Kylie Gauci 10 but restricted GB’s top scorers had just five points apiece.

In their most dominant performance of the tournament, the Gliders limited Great Britain to only two points in the final quarter as the Aussies romped home.

Great Britain’s men’s team recovered from their loss to the Rollers yesterday to claim Gold and Canada claimed the women’s Gold medal over the Netherlands.

The Gliders return home to take on Germany in the Gliders World Challenge from June 7-11.

The teams will all be back in the UK in just six week’s time for the IWBF World Championships, being held in Birmingham.

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Photo courtesy of Reuters