(CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I.) – Quebec and B.C. secured top spots in their respective pools, earning a berth in Friday’s semifinals. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and New Brunswick will battle in Thursday’s quarterfinals at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Manitoba will play New Brunswick in the first quarterfinal on Thursday at 5:00 PM/AST. Saskatchewan and Alberta will square off in the second quarterfinal at 7:00 PM/AST.
B.C. became the first team to secure the top spot in its pool when they defeated Alberta 69-43. Nick van Bakel led B.C. with a double-double scoring 23 points and 12 rebounds. Ben Hagkull added 17 points and five assists in the victory.
“It’s huge to get the bye. Alberta is a good team with Reed De’Aeth, Jayna Doll, and Hayes Cooke, so to play a team we haven’t faced in full for the entire year and have them put on a show for the entire first half was pretty impressive,” said Hagkull. “All we needed to do was execute our game plan, and we kind of cruised to the end – it was a good showing by our team as well.”
Despite the 67-64 loss to New Brunswick in the final game of the preliminary round, Quebec advanced to Friday’s semifinals due to the tiebreaker.
Jake Fudge had a triple-double for New Brunswick in the win. Fudge scored 23 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, while Austin MacLellan had a team-high 27 points and 10 rebounds.
“That’s a big win. We wanted to be ready as a team after yesterday we felt we had to recollect,” said New Brunswick coach Adam Loo. “Everybody went to work; we had a good practice today. We’ve played Quebec before, they are a tough competitor, and we’re happy to see this result.”
Manitoba wrapped up the preliminary round with a 65-39 victory over Ontario on Wednesday. Josh Brown had a game-high 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Thomas Thevenot added 10 points.
“I think it’s very important. Manitoba hasn’t been in a playoff situation in a while, so for us to finally get a win and put ourselves in medal contention potentially is really big, especially for Joey and Bill Johnson being here for the first time as our coaches and our team being very inexperienced,” Brown said. “It was a great win, I felt really good about it, and the team win worked really hard.”
Jordan Bortis paced Saskatchewan with a double-double in their 55-27 victory over Newfoundland. Bortis had 20 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Kyrell Sopotyk and Yousif Kaed each had eight points.
“We’re really happy with the improvements we’ve seen since Junior Nationals back in June,” said Saskatchewan coach Rob Sajtos. “I think we’ve got a pretty good group, they’re playing really well together and looking out for each other. It’s been a good couple of days, and we’re looking forward to Thursday.”
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.