INCHEON (IWBF Men's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship) - Australia on Sunday became only the second team to repeat as IWBF men's world champions by claiming a 63-57 win over the USA in the Final of the IWBF World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Incheon, Korea.

The Aussie Rollers join the USA - who won three in a row twice (1979-86, 1994-2002) - in achieving the rare feat of successfully defending their title.

Turkey, in only their second appearance at the world championship, took the bronze medal with a 68-63 win over Spain.

With 2012 Paralympic champions Canada absent - in rebuilding mode, they failed to qualify - Australia, with most of their silver medal team from London 2012 intact, were pre-tournament favorites along with the Americans and Great Britain.

By all accounts though, the Aussies were fortunate to make the penultimate game. Down by 20 points to Turkey at halftime of their semifinal - their fifth consecutive at the IWBF World Championship - it took an epic comeback to save the day. Turkey's Ozgur Gurbulak, arguably the tournament's best player, was on his way to 19 points and a remarkable 17 assists.

Australia cut the lead to eight after three quarters and took their first lead of the game with two minutes to play. They scored 24 in the final stanza to complete the 63-58 victory. Shaun Norris and Justin Eveson combined for 20 of those fourth quarter points and led Australia with 21 and 20 respectively for the game.

That put the Rollers back into their second straight gold medal final after three successive bronze medal games of which they won one in 2006.

The USA had a less dramatic but just as tense victory over Spain, 56-49, in their semifinal. The Americans surged to big leads and the Spaniards clawed back. Halfway through the third period, Spain took the lead at 30-28 but were down by one starting the fourth. With 3:35 to play, the USA lead was up to 11. With 1:43 to go, it was cut to six but that's as close as it got.

Cast together by the draw, the Americans and Australians had played five days earlier in the last of the opening round of group games. The USA won 67-57 on the merits of 53 percent shooting compared to 35 percent for the Aussies.

Not so in the final where it was Australia that set the pace as key American scorers missed eight of their first 11 shots. Brian Bell and Steve Serio were going 0 for 4 and 1 of 5 respectively.

Meanwhile, Tristan Knowles was having his best game of the tournament, eventually leading all scorers with 17 points on 70 percent shooting including two dagger three-pointers. Eveson and Norris added 11 each.

This time it was Australia shooting 59 percent in the first half with the USA struggling at 36 percent.

Even though the Americans improved their accuracy, finishing at 42 percent for the game while Australia cooled to 50 percent, they could not hit the shots at key times when they could have taken the momentum.

Perhaps it was the attempts to ratchet up the pressure of a high risk/high reward defense - the USA had six steals off of 10 Aussie turnovers - but after several good stands, Eveson or Brad Ness got open under the basket to beat back the challenge.

The Americans did take the lead twice by two points in the middle of the third quarter but again could not capitalize going forward.

The game was tied for the last time at 50-50 with 6:14 to play. The Aussie lead was as much as seven with one minute left. With 35 seconds to go, a Matt Scott basket cut it to three, but another two USA misses and three Eveson free-throws sealed the second World Championship gold for Australia.

"I'm absolutely exhilarated," said Australian coach Ben Ettridge. "I've got the 12 best guys in the world and I'm so happy for them. I'm proud of the guys, they're amazing and they have done a great job.

"We pride ourselves on our defense and that's what won it. Every time we play defense, it's a war and today we gave them nothing. We made them shoot from the perimeter and it was our defense that won it."

Meanwhile, two-time European silver medalists (2009, 2013) Turkey registered their best-ever finish in a global tournament. They were eighth in 2010 and seventh in 2012, their only previous World Championships or Paralympics.

"We took our country's name to the third level of the world," an excited coach Remzi Sedat Incesu told the media. "We are disappointed about yesterday's game (the loss to Australia) but for 10 years we have been aiming to be the best team in the world."

Spain took an early lead in the bronze medal game but Turkey's strong shooting - 59 percent for the game - helped win the day.

The game stayed close with several lead changes and was even until the Turks surged ahead on a 12-0 run over the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter. Spain didn't fold and fought back to 62-63 with a minute and a half to go but the Turks hit three of four free throws to close out the game.

Gezinci paced Turkey with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Ferit Gumus added 18 points. Ozgur Gurbulak had 13 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. Spain were led by Asier Garcia's 21 points with Alejandro Zarzuela adding 10.

Joakim Linden of Sweden was the tournament's leading scorer on average at 22.86 points per game, followed by Germany's Dirk Passiwan (21.57), Hiroaki Kozai of Japan (19.57), Iran's Vahid Gholamazad (19.25) and Kozai's team-mate Reo Fujimoto (19.0).

2014 IWBF Men's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship
Final standings
1. Australia
2. USA
3. Turkey
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Korea
7. Great Britain
8. Iran
9. Japan
10. Colombia
11. Germany
12. Argentina
13. Sweden
14. Mexico
15. Netherlands
16. Algeria

Full game, team stats and FibaLiveStats boxscores can be found here
Individual leaders and standings can be found here
Archived video of the tournament can be seen here
Photos can be seen here

FIBA