Team Canada defeated Thailand 54-35 on Sunday morning
Canada defeated Thailand 54-35 in the crossover 5-8 matchup on Sunday at the 2023 IWBF Women’s U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Bangkok.
“We didn’t change our gameplan too much from Thursday; we just tried to get inside a little bit more and take some easier shots instead of those open 10-footers they were giving us in the last game. I think that made the difference,” said Women’s U25 Head Coach Marni Abbott-Peter. “We also got to the free throw line, which was really helpful for our offence.”
Elise Froese (Victoria, B.C.) paced Canada with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Bethany Johnson (Winnipeg, Man.) added 13 points and seven rebounds, while Puisand Lai (Toronto, Ont.) chipped in eight points, seven rebounds and eight assists in a rematch of the Group B meeting, which Thailand won 41-37 on Thursday.
“Elise struggled a bit in the first half but ended up with a double-double – for sure had a huge impact on the game,” Abbott-Peter added. “I think the defence we played on their main threats – the whole team focused on that and did a really good job of rotating. We’ve been proud of our defence all week, which helped us turn it around on the offensive side today.”
Canada will now play against Germany for fifth on Sunday at 11 p.m. ET. Team Canada dropped a 47-30 decision to Germany on Friday to conclude group play.
“If we played as well as we did today, we should have success. We’ll have a little bit of a different gameplan for them,” said Abbott-Peter. “We are definitely looking forward to playing Germany again and we’ll have a slightly different strategy. Hopefully, we don’t get into foul trouble like we did on Friday, but we’re looking forward to another game and an opportunity to finish fifth here.”
Canada outscored Thailand 13-7 in the fourth quarter and finished shooting 23 of 76 from the field while limiting Thailand to 24 per cent shooting. Kayla MacKinnon (Dartmouth, N.S.) gave Canada a 48-23 lead 1:16 into the fourth – her first international points with Team Canada.
Team Canada opened the half, scoring four unanswered, pushing the lead to 11. Froese scored six straight Canada points, extending the lead to 15 2:48 into the third. Canada outscored Thailand 18-12 in the third and led 41-28 entering the fourth.
Canada led 26-16 at halftime. Johnson led the way with eight points and three rebounds. Lai contributed six points, four rebounds, and four assists through two quarters. Froese added four points and five rebounds for Canada, who scored 10 points off Thailand turnovers.
Canada went on a 5-0 run to jump out to an early 5-2 lead and led 15-7 after the first period, scoring eight points of Thailand turnovers. Johnson paced Canada with six points and three rebounds. Lai added four points, while Smith chipped in three points.
Full stats from Sunday’s game can be found here.
Lead photo courtesy SA Images/IWBF