(CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I.) – Quebec, B.C. and Alberta remained undefeated, while Saskatchewan found its first win on the second day of competition at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Collin Lalonde had a game-high 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists as Quebec defeated Newfoundland 53-26 to improve to 2-0. Alex Bougie and Aurélie Jacob-Verreault chipped in 11 points each in the victory.
“It was really good to get the second win. I think we’ve got some excellent bench players that can come off the bench, and they did a really good job today,” said Lalonde. “We’re building confidence – we have a lot of strengths – we have height, and we have shooters, so it’s good.”
B.C. also moved to 2-0 with a 72-36 win over Ontario at the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre on the campus of UPEI. Gabe Harrison paced all scorers with 17 points. Nick van Bakel added 14 points, while Joel Aukema finished with 13 points and four rebounds.
“It’s nice to be up 2-0, but we can’t take it for granted. There’s still a lot of good teams we haven’t played,” said van Bakel. “We had some key points, and we executed them pretty well. Obviously, there’s still stuff to work on, but it was a good performance by our team.”
Saskatchewan picked up its first win in Charlottetown, defeating New Brunswick 46-35 on Tuesday afternoon. Jordan Bortis had a team-high 15 points and 11 rebounds. Kyrell Sopotyk and Eli Corpuz each contributed 10 points in the win.
“Our whole team came out with great intensity. It was a tough game. We lost to them at Junior Nationals, so it was nice for everybody to be working together and communicating well,” said Bortis. “It was a good game overall. We all played really well.”
Reed De’Aeth had a double-double pacing Alberta in a 73-55 win over Manitoba to conclude Tuesday’s action. De’Aeth had a game-high 38 points and 11 rebounds in the win. Jayna Doll added 15 points and seven rebounds in the victory.
“I think it just really proves the hard work and dedication we’ve put in,” said Doll. “We come in, we expect either a win or a loss, but we play our game, we play Alberta basketball. So it’s a really big win for us. It gets that momentum going, we’re halfway through the week, and we’re pumped.”
The preliminary round concludes on Wednesday when Ontario and Manitoba tip off at 11:00 AM, followed by Newfoundland and Saskatchewan at 1:00 PM. Then, Alberta battles B.C. at 4:00 PM, and New Brunswick faces Quebec at 6:00 PM to conclude the day’s games. All times are listed in Atlantic Time.
The Canada Games are a milestone in the continued development of the next generation of Canadian national, world and Paralympic champions in wheelchair basketball. The competition features current and future members of the Canadian National Team program, including hopefuls to represent Canada at the IWBF World Championships and the Parapan American Games.
The complete tournament schedule and results are available here. Photos from games can be found here. Games are streamed through the official Canada Games web portal. Join the conversation on social media with the hashtag #CGwheelchairbball.