Round Up of Day 4 at the World Championships
In the opening match of the day at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships it saw a high scoring game between Poland and Japan. It was the European side that took the win after beating the Japanese 84 points – 61. Poland shot the ball at 63% compared to Japan’s 42%. Poland’s win was helped by some exceptional shooting from Mateusz Filipski who scored an incredible 32 points.
There was a shock defeat for The Netherlands women’s team in the first women’s match on day four when Mexico defeated them in a tight match 47 v 56. With Floralia Estrada and Lucia Vazquez joint top scorers for Mexico, both contributing 19 points each.
USA men made comfortable work of victory over Italy, with an 82 -39 win. USA’s scoring spread out around the team, Paul Schulte hit 14 points. This sets up the USA nicely as they prepare to take on Japan tomorrow (Sunday 11th July).
There was heartache again for Great Britain women’s team as they suffered another narrow loss to Australia. Helen Freeman and Amy Conroy both produced strong performances to score 12 and 13 points, respectively but it was not enough to overcome the team down under who won the match by 48 – 40. Great Britain will now be looking for their first win against Mexico on Monday 12th July.
The opening game of pool B men’s between saw Algeria hoping to get their first win of the tournament against Australia. The game started with both teams having strong offence but it was Eveson who opened the scoring for Australia. Australia showed their international experience and good team play meant they built a 17 point lead in the first quarter. The second quarter started much the same with a great 3 pointer from Knowles for Australia to extend their lead. Algeria were still playing some good offence much to the delight of their loud supportive fans in the crowd. Australia used their bench in the third quarter. Knowles proved to be Australia’s star shooter with a 100% conversation rate for his eight 2 pointers and three 3 pointers throughout the game. The score ended 92-44 matching the highest score so far for USA against South Korea.
Reigning World Champions Canada came back from behind at half time to beat France in an exhilarating game. In a close contest there was only 2 points in the score for the majority of the first quarter and Canada edged it by the smallest margin at the end of the first. 15-16. The second quarter continued on the same but Canada started to gain a grip on the game and a great 3 pointer from Dave Durepos gave them a 4 point lead at the half time stage. However, France were showing no signs that they had been beaten in their opening 2 games and were matching Canada in both defence and offence keeping the score close and kept the Canadians within 4 points at the end of the third quarter, 46-42. In the early stages of the final quarter Canada started to then open the gap between the two scoring 5 points including another 3 pointer, this time by Adam Lancia, in the opening 2 minutes. Canada continued to take their opportunities and with France’s team fouls they were scoring the free throws as a result and extended the lead to a finish of 12 points advantage. Final score 67-55. Overall it was a very close contest then may have been thought the result gives Canada a 3rd successive win and France their 3rd successive loss.
It was another nail biter in the other game in Pool B match between Turkey and Mexico. Turkey finally finished top with the aid of 38 points and 18 points from Ozgur Gurbulak. Turkey led throughout the quarters but were alarmed when Mexico made a comeback in the final quarter but Turkey’s defence was strong enough to hold on to win by eight points 83 – 75.
The last women’s game of the day saw an undefeated USA team take on China who lost to Germany yesterday. The USA stamped their authority on this game from the start pulling out in front by 19 points in the first quarter. The same continued in the second and by this time the USA had stretched their lead to a healthy 51 – 17. All though the game was virtually out of reach for China they continued to battle and manage to hold USA in the final quarter to 13 points each although it was too late. The final score ended 81 – 40. Leading Scorers for USA where Becca Murray with 22 points and for China Yun Long netted 14 points. USA will face a tough challenge in their next game against Germany whilst the Chinese will take on Japan. The final game on court 1 on day 4 was between Japan and Brazil. Japan opened the scoring, Tomoe Soeda first basket came in the first 30 seconds and went on to gain a 6 point lead before Brazil’s opening basket by Paola Klokler. Japan played some good offence which allowed them to take a 17 point lead into the break after the first quarter. 23-6. Both teams made the full 5 substitutions for the start of the second quarter although this made no major difference to the way of the game with Japan continuing to dominate scoring four times that of Brazil giving the Japanese a 32 point lead at the half time. 43-11. The third quarter started in the same way with Brazil failing to close the lead although showed great spirit and offence play at times. Mari Amimoto added to her total with another 2 pointer in what was a low scoring quarter for both teams. 53-15. With the game very much one sided Brazil were hoping to limit the scoring and keep Japan at bay in defence and taking there opportunities when they arose. In the end Japan proved to be much the stronger side and carried the theme of the game until the end giving them a second win of the tournament setting them up nicely for there next game against Germany who are currently unbeaten winning there opening two games. Final score 69-22.
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