The Senior Women’s National Team edged China 54-50 on Friday morning to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals at the IWBF World Championships. Team Canada will now play the Netherlands in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 4:15 a.m. ET. “We’ve been in many tight games this week, and China was undefeated in the group play. For us to come out and compete today was awesome,” said head coach Marni Abbott-Peter. “We executed the game plan perfectly. At the end of the game, when it got tight, we kept our composure, did what we needed, and ended up with the win.” Canada led 45-40 after three quarters and managed to withstand a fourth-quarter push from China, which included an 8-0 run. Canada concluded the quarter on a 4-0 run of its own, including two made free throws by Kady Dandeneau, to seal the victory. Dandeneau and Cindy Ouellet each finished with 22 points. Dandeneau added 16 rebounds and five assists. Elodie Tessier chipped in eight points and three rebounds. “It was a really good fight till the end,” said Ouellet, who added nine rebounds and three assists. “We stayed composed and helped each other even on the bench, the coaching staff – we helped each other to stay composed, and that was the difference at the end.” Complete stats from Friday’s win over China can be found here. On the men’s side, Canada dropped a 68-53 decision to the Netherlands on Friday afternoon. Canada fell behind 21-13 after the first quarter and trailed by 14 at halftime but pulled to within nine in the fourth quarter before the Dutch pulled away. Nik Goncin paced Canada with 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Patrick Anderson added 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and Garrett Ostepchuk contributed six points and four rebounds in the loss. “The Dutch are a great team; they played their game very well and were able to execute,” said Bo Hedges. “We tried to battle them and keep them out of their spots, but we couldn’t quite get there. The biggest thing is we fought through the whole game. We tried and pushed through the fourth quarter and made them work for it and made them earn it, but they did well.” The Senior Men’s National Team will now play Australia at 10:45 a.m. ET on Saturday in the 5-8 crossover game. “Tomorrow is another day and another game, so we’ll get a game plan set and prepare for that,” Hedges said. “We want to finish better than our eighth-place showing at the Tokyo Paralympics, so we need a win on Saturday, which will secure that.” Full stats from the game against the Dutch can be found here.
Press release & photo: Wheelchair Basketball Canada