Canada will now play in Sunday’s 5-8 crossover on Sunday

Canada dropped a 38-26 decision to China in the quarterfinals on Saturday at the 2023 IWBF Women’s U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.

Team Canada will now play Thailand in the 5-8 crossover on Sunday morning at 12:45 a.m. ET.

Puisand Lai (Toronto, Ont.) paced Canada with 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Elise Froese (Victoria, B.C.) added six points and 11 rebounds, while Bethany Johnson (Winnipeg, Man.) chipped in six points, nine rebounds and three assists in the loss.

“The team played awesome defensively, holding their top-scoring threat to just 12 points,” said Women’s U25 Head Coach Marni Abbott-Peter. “We played hard until the final buzzer. I am so proud of the total team effort today. The bench provided amazing energy, and everyone was ready to play.”

China out-scored Canada 11-8 in the fourth to pull away for the victory. Canada cut China’s lead to nine in the third, out-scoring China 6-4, but couldn’t pull closer.

Team Canada trailed 23-12 at the break. China out-scored Canada 12-6 in the second period to carry an 11-point lead into halftime. Froese scored four in the opening 90 seconds of the second period, cutting China’s lead to 13-10, but China responded by scoring 10 straight to push its lead to 23-10.

Froese had four points, seven rebounds, and two assists through two quarters.

Canada scored the first four unanswered to open the game and then pushed its lead to 6-2 3:14 into the period, but China responded with a 9-0 run to take an 11-6 lead after one quarter. Lai led Canada with four points, and Megan Smith (Vancouver, B.C.) added two points and three rebounds.

Complete stats from the game can be found here

Lead photo courtesy SA Images/IWBF