New South African wheelchair basketball team coach Viv Sierra came through the opening day of the Wheelchair Basketball Challenge on Thursday confident that the core of his squad for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics is in place.

Sierra watched the opening match of the Wheelchair Basketball between local league outfit the Pumas and a visiting Angola team, which the Pumas won 72-40, at the Vodacom Mandeville Indoor Center in Johannesburg on Thursday evening.

Thereafter Sierra oversaw the first of two national trial matches he has arranged during the Challenge as part of his final selection process for the Paralympics.

The second trial match will take place on Saturday, after which Sierra will announce his final squad of 15 players for Beijing.

"I've got a fairly good idea of my squad. I know the core of the team. Players like Marius Papenfuss, Justin Govender, and the oversees-based players like Richard Nortje, David Curle and Nick Taylor basically pick themselves," Sierra was quoted as saying by the SAPA news agency.

"But this tournament will give me a good chance to look at some of the guys I think are fighting for places," Sierra said.

As the newly-elected coach of the South African wheelchair basketball team, Sierra said he will use this event to bring a different focus to the national side.

"I'm looking for team players, not individual stars. That's what I want in order to build for the next two years for Beijing. We've certainly got the players. It's now just a question of getting them to play a particular style that works for them as a team," he said.