Australia’s men’s wheelchair basketball team gave up a half time lead to lose their opening match of the tournament to the Netherlands 66-55.

The Rollers started well, leading by four at the end of the first period thanks to Bill Latham and Tom O’Neill-Thorne, and then maintained their edge until the end of the first half with a 30-28 advantage.

But the second half was completely different as the Dutch flicked a switch, led by star player Mendel Op den Orth, who scored at will to lead his team back into the match.

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Op den Orth was unstoppable as the Netherlands overpowered Australia to lead 44-40 at the end of the third.

The Dutch extended their lead in the fourth but the Rollers – two-time Paralympic gold medallists – kept coming, and brought the deficit back to single digits but they couldn’t stay with the scoring power of the Europeans.

Op den Orth finished with a game-leading 26 points and is clearly one of the best players competing in Paris.

Bill Latham was top scorer for Australia with 16 points.

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There’s no rest for the Aussies, their next match is against Spain at 8:45pm AEST on Friday.

The final game of their pool is on Sunday against powerhouse USA.

Australia has a rich history in this event, having won gold in Atlanta 1996 and Beijing 2008.