World Championships Day Nine Round up
The men’s eleventh and twelfth classification match settled the first placings of the tournament as Algeria took on South Korea. South Korea started the match well and finished the first period with a 16 – 13 lead but it was in the second quarter that they really pulled away. The strong Korea defence restricted Algeria to just six points while they scored 16 points themselves for a half time score of 32 – 19. In the second half, Algeria rallied and closed the gap to six points at the end of the third quarter but it wasn’t enough as Korea pushed on to end the game 64 – 51. For Algeria Nabil Guidone and Billel Ayache rounded off good personal tournaments with another good points contribution, 14 points each, while Dong Hyeon Kim and Ho Yong Kim performed well for South Korea scoring 21 and 23 points respectively.
Mexico secured a ninth place finish with a victory over Japan in the next men’s classification game. This was a close game between two evenly matched teams and the scores at the end of each quarter reflected that. However Mexico outscored Japan in the second quarter by 21 points to 14 and this proved to be the difference. The half time lead of 25 – 33 to Mexico was soon whittled down by Japan but Mexico held on for a 63 – 59 win and condemned Japan to tenth place. Reo Fujimoto was again the outstanding player for Japan, leading the stats with 33 points and 15 rebounds. His points total confirmed him as the leading points scorer in the tournament so far. For Mexico Raul Ortega and Eduardo Prieto stood out, contributing half of the Mexico score.
Mexico’s women also finished ninth in the tournament courtesy of their final win over Brazil in the 9 – 10 classification game. A one sided game saw Mexico dominate proceedings from start to finish and a combination of strong defence and poor finishing restricted Brazil to single figure scoring in every quarter. At half time the score was 39 – 16 with little surprise at the final score of 73 – 33. Floralia Estrada of Mexico consolidated her place in the top 10 tournament leading scorer charts with 23 points in addition to 14 rebounds and for Brazil, Monica Santos scored 14 points.
Japan and China battled it out for seventh and eighth places in the women’s competition in the afternoon. Japan took an early lead in the first quarter of 15 – 8 and didn’t relinquish the lead throughout the match after that. China kept going and pushed Japan all the way but they didn’t quite enough to make the breakthrough and catch Japan. The final score of 58 – 41 ensured that Japan secured seventh place in the tournament and China finished eighth. Ikumi Inoue top scored with 23 points for Japan and Yanhua Li was the high scorer for China with 12.
Canada and Turkey’s then faced each other to determine who would finish 7th and 8th in the championships. Turkey made the better start passing the ball well and an early 3 pointer for Gurbulak, who has been in impressive form during the tournament so far scoring an average of 24 points per game, helped towards a good lead finishing the quarter 10-20. The second quarter started with Canada pushing to reduce the lead but the ball was not dropping for them. The Canadian coach called a timeout as he tried to reorganise and overturn the 15 point deficit. Great support from the bench inspired Canada with only a 2 point deficit after the first half. 31-33. Canada matched Turkey this quarter, gaining the lead for over a minute but Turkey then started to take their chances again and a fine shot by Kablan put Turkey back in the lead. Canada started to force turnovers as Turkey struggled to break their strong defence down and Canada took advantage giving themselves a 3 point lead at half time. 52-49. Dini for Canada received his fifth foul taking the spectator role for the remaining minutes. Peter for Canada was in impressive form scoring 10 out of the 11 two point shots taken with his 20 points contributing to Canada's lead. Dini for Canada and Kablan for Turkey were both fouled out in the final stages of the quarter. Canada finished the game with a 10 point margin meaning they finish 7th in the tournament overall and a final score of 71-61.
The final games of the day saw Great Britain men’s and women’s team playing on either court fighting it out for 5th and 6th place. Great Britain Women’s team faced the Dutch for the second time this tournament and it was the Netherlands who came out very strong and had a point to prove after losing by just 1 point in the earlier meeting. Great Britain struggling to find the basket after a number of attacks it meant that The Netherlands were ahead by within 5 at the end of the 1st quarter. The second quarter saw all the damage done, The Netherlands took their chances to extend the lead to 11 points. This continued in the third quarter with The Netherlands and at one stage led by 18 points. Great Britain chased the result and even the insertion of some fresh players with Maddie Thompson and Judith Hamer coming off the bench for valuable minutes on court could not rouse GB. The Netherlands used the experience of Inge Huitzing, who finished overall leading points scorer with 20 points, to secure the win and finish with a lead of 15 points. Final Score 58 – 43
In the men’s 5th/6th playoff Great Britain took on Poland in another rematch. With 117 points and averaging 17 points per game Joni Pollock has been in impressive form for GB and this continued as he led Great Britain from the front. Poland started strong getting an early 7 point lead, until GB responded with two three pointers from Pollock which quickly reduced the lead and at the end of the first quarter GB trailed by one point. Poland kept pushing but weren’t able to compete with GB’s superior play. GB moved 14 points clear at the end of the third going into the final quarter with the scores at 60 - 46. Although Poland needed to overturn a 14 point lead they did not giving up and continued to play well. However GB had ensured that the lead was secure enough and won the match 82 – 68 and claim 5th spot at the World Championships.
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