Canadians will face France on Thursday for ninth place

Josh Brown paced Canada in a 71-30 victory over South Africa at the IWBF Men’s U23 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Phuket, Thailand, on Wednesday. The win sets up another meeting between Canada and France on Thursday in the ninth-place game.

“It’s nice to get another win under our belt. We can see the confidence building in the group,” said Darrell Nordell, Men’s Under-23 Head Coach. “We’re doing a better job of playing a full 40 minutes and finishing teams. We will match up against France again on Thursday, and we want to finish the tournament strong.”

Brown had a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds. Reed De’Aeth chipped in 18 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists, while Collin Lalonde added 12 points. Kyrell Sopotyk and Joel Ewert also scored their first international points in the victory.

“Josh was our highest scorer today with 20 points and 45 per cent shooting from the field,” Nordell said. “To win games, we want to be shooting 46 per cent or more, so he’s right there.

Canada shot 34 of 82 from the field while limiting their turnovers to just seven. The Canadians held South Africa to 22 per cent shooting in the win.

Team Canada opened the second half on a 10-0 surge to push their lead to 31, 51-20. Canada limited South Africa to just 19 per cent shooting from the field through three quarters.

Canada scored nine unanswered to close out the first half with a 33-14 advantage – their largest lead of the half. Brown paced all Canadian scorers with 14 points, De’Aeth added 10 and Garrett Ostepchuk had six through two quarters.

De’Aeth and Brown had six points each as Canada led 14-8 after the first quarter. Canada opened on a 6-0 run and shot 6 of 19 from the field in the opening period.

Canada and France tip-off in the ninth-place game on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 12:00 a.m. ET. Canada defeated France in overtime 58-56 on Tuesday in round-robin play. The game can be live streamed on the IWBF’s YouTube channel.

“We have to be disciplined and play our game,” Nordell explained. “We know France has got some good cutters, but our press can work from time to time against them. We match-up well against France, but they will be coming for us too.”

The IWBF Men’s U23 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship is typically held every four years, with 12 countries participating. This year’s tournament will be the seventh edition of the event. It is the first U23 tournament since 2017, which Toronto hosted, and Great Britain won.

To be eligible to participate, male players must be born on or after Jan. 1, 1999. The IWBF is maintaining the same age category as if the event was held in 2021 to ensure athletes wouldn’t lose their eligibility due to the postponement of last year’s tournament.

Full stats from Wednesday’s game can be found here.