Great Britain defeated Canada 66-52 in the men’s wheelchair basketball quarterfinals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Wednesday.
Team Canada will now play in the classification round against Germany on Thursday to determine the seventh and eighth seeds.
“We’ve been close. They’re the defending World Champions. We were leading, but we relaxed, and they came out stronger in the fourth quarter,” said head coach Matteo Feriani. “They’re a lot more experienced than us. We were close; we were right there. We kept improving throughout the game.”
Patrick Anderson had a game-high 22 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists for Canada (2-4). Bo Hedges, Colin Higgins and Lee Melymick each added eight points in the loss.
Higgins helped Team Canada open a 10-point lead on an 8-0 run in the third quarter, and the Canadians held a 43-42 lead through three periods, but Great Britain (5-1) outscored Canada 24-9 in the fourth quarter.
“It is not easy to close out a game against Great Britain. We had it. But I’m proud of the guys, proud of the improvements, proud of how we have been playing,” Feriani said. “I’m proud because we fought. We fought until the end. We were there. We fought until the end. We made it very hard for them.”
Canada finished shooting 37 per cent from the field while Great Britain shot 47 per cent. Anderson paced the Canadians with 14 points and nine rebounds at halftime as Canada held a 30-26 lead.
The Canadians also led after one period, 16-14, on 8 of 19 shooting – Higgins, Melymick and Anderson each had four points in the opening quarter.
Team Canada will now play Germany, who lost to Spain 71-68 in the quarterfinals. Germany finished the preliminary round fourth in Group B with a 3-2 record.
“We have to keep improving. Keep playing the right way. Keep improving and make less of the mistakes that make the difference,” said Feriani of the keys to beating Germany. “The small mistakes make the difference. The less mistakes we make, the better, offensively and defensively.”
Complete stats: https://bit.ly/3t46i4J
Men’s Classification schedule:
Thursday, Sept. 2: Germany vs Canada 11:30 p.m. ET
Women’s Classification schedule:
Friday, Sept. 3: Canada vs Japan 2:00 a.m. ET
For livestream links please CLICK HERE