World Championships Day 7 Round up.
Mexico and South Korea’s men’s teams played out the first 9 to 12 classification game after their elimination yesterday at the group stage of the Championships. A close game saw both sides fighting hard to avoid the possibility of finishing last and Mexico just about managed to hold on for a narrow win. The first half went to Mexico as they led 35 – 25 at the break but South Korea rallied in the second half and outscored their opponents in both second half periods. It wasn’t enough however as Mexico held on to record a 64 - 57 win. Ho Yong Kim top scored with 22 points, just ahead of Salvador Zavala on 21 points. Zavala starred all round as the leading rebounder and the highest assists for Mexico. Mexico will now play Japan on Friday for the right to finish ninth and tenth in the Championships.
Japan cruised to an emphatic victory over Algeria in the second game of the day as Reo Fujimoto continued his excellent form in these Championships. Fujimoto scored 34 points making him the tournament's leading points scorer so far as well making eight rebounds. Algeria couldn't cope with the scoring power of Japan and the end of the first quarter saw a lead of 28 - 6 effectively ending the game as a contest. Algeria improved a little in the second quarter but Japan were still in control at 37 - 17 points. The second half continued in a similar vein and the final score of 82 - 36 reflected the near total dominance of Japan throughout. Omar Zidi and Nabil Guidone were the standout players for Algeria contributing 26 of Algeria's 36 point total. Algeria will now face South Korea for the dubious honour of not finishing last in the Championships.
Australia and Poland began the quarter final schedule and Australia reached the semi-finals with a comfortable victory. The first quarter was a close affair as the two sides couldn’t be separated at 14 points all. However the rest of the game didn’t follow the same pattern as Australia’s defence gave little away to the Poland offence. The half time score of 25 – 22 was extended even further as Poland were restricted to single figure scores in each quarter as Australia’s dominance continued. Brett Stibners, Tristan Knowles and Justin Eveson did the damage for Australia while player coach Piotr Luszynski once again performed well for Poland.
The first shock of the tournament came on court two as the defending world champions, Canada, were knocked out by Italy. The Italians thoroughly deserved their win as they led throughout and managed to keep Canada at bay from start to finish. Dave Durepos fouled out for Canada but nobody stood out for points scoring, Adam Lancia topping the scoring charts with nine points. For Italy Amine Moukhariq also fouled out but Matteo Cavagnini contributed well with 20 points. The final score of 63 – 47 showed that Italy’s win was not a chance result and they will go into their semi-final clash with USA full of confidence.
Germany beat The Netherlands to book a place in the semi-finals against Australia. Germany were always too strong as they controlled the game throughout with Marina Mohnen and Gesche Schunemann putting in strong points scoring performances. Inge Huitzing played well for The Netherlands but they were always second best in this match. The full time score of 63 – 40 reflected Germany's superior play and Germany will now look forward the clash with Australia.
Great Britain women put up a sturdy display against reigning Paralympic Champions USA, however with the help from another outstanding performance from Becca Murray scoring 22 points and 11 rebounds, USA proved too strong for the home nation going down 53 – 37.
It was double disappointment for Great Britain today, as GB men played France on court one straight after. In what was a close match throughout with neither side pulling away from each other France edged the match 59 – 50. Great Britain failed to find their form they showed in their final pool game against USA.
Australia completed a convincing win against China in the women's quarter final as they led from start to finish. A strong defensive display by Australia restricted China to minimal chances and in two of the quarters China could only manage single figure scoring. Kylie Gauci top scored for Australia with Cobi Crispin also scoring well while Chao Yang was the stand out player for China. At half time the score was 38 - 24 and in the second half, China only managed 14 points as the final score was 77 - 38.
USA cruised through to the semi-finals with an emphatic win over Turkey. An excellent attacking performance saw three players top score with 14 points - Jacob Counts, Joseph Chambers and Matthew Scott and all three only played 20 minutes of the game each. For Turkey, one of the tournament's leading points scorers, Ozgur Gurbalak again was the main threat as he scored 22 points. The 43 - 17 score at half time was practically repeated in the second half as the USA ran out 92 - 50 winners. The final quarter being a high scoring affair of 19 points each as the USA gave some valuable playing minutes to their squad.
Canada's women beat Japan to advance to the semi-finals with the tournament's outstanding player, Janet McLachlan, once again starring for Canada. The first quarter saw Canada race into a 24 - 8 lead which helped them during the game as Japan came out on top outscoring their opponents in the next two quarters. Canada then made sure of the win in the final period as they consolidated their position and ended up with a comfortable 62 - 39 victory. Another of the tournament's top scorers, Mari Amimoto scored well for Japan with 14 points but Japan couldn't cope with the attacking prowess of Canada.
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