GREAT Britain men’s wheelchair basketball captain Phil Pratt says his team are no longer underdogs after beating Rio Paralympic gold medallists USA in the final of the World Championship.

GB, led by Rogiet’s Pratt, won 79-62 in Hamburg to claim their first global title, as the British women had to settle for silver following a 56-40 loss to the Netherlands.

The men had gone down 66-59 to the USA in the pool stages but 17 points apiece for George Bates and Harry Brown saw them avenge that defeat in the showpiece.

"This is the start of something great," said Pratt. "I've just played against Matt Scott and Steve Sterio who were among my idols growing up.

“I watched hours of clips of them and now I have played against them and beaten them in a World Championship final. It is ridiculous.

"We have been working hard to get to this stage and the belief in the team has been so high. We definitely believed we could win.

"This is the first time we have ever been in this situation.

“We aren't the underdogs anymore and we will now have a different mindset as we build towards Tokyo."

He added: “To beat them by 17 points in the final is unbelievable – I don’t think they’ve lost a game for nearly four years, so to be the team that break that streak, wow.

“We are such a young team but we are good friends.

“This showed on the floor when times got tough, we dug in deep and knew it would come good at the end.”

The opening quarter was tight and in a tough, physical encounter, GB led by eight points in the second quarter, before the USA brought it back to 38-33 at the interval.

GB continued to maintain their advantage with coach Haj Bhania showing faith in his starting five of Brown, Pratt, Gregg Warburton, Lee Manning and Simon Brown, while Bates made a big impact in the second half.

Pratt and his troops pulled away in the latter stages and there were wild celebrations from the British team and their supporters on the final whistle.