Canada’s men will play for wheelchair basketball bronze in Paris.
The Canadians fell 80-43 against the reigning champion U.S. on Thursday at Bercy Arena, ending their bid for a first Paralympic victory since 2012.
Instead, Canada will be forced to regroup in time for the third-place game on Saturday at 10 a.m. ET against Germany. The U.S. will face Great Britain for gold later in the day.
“We’re not even upset. For us, finishing in the top four is amazing. We barely qualified for this. We had a tough summer with games,” Canada’s Vincent Dallaire said.
“Top four was what we wanted. It was a long shot with the [United] States, but we knew we had to give everything. Whatever happens, happens, and we’re not upset. On to the bronze-medal game in a couple of days.”
American Brian Bell led all scorers with 31 points.
Canada, the definitive pre-game underdogs, got off to a strong start against the Americans, taking leads of 8-2 and 16-10 in the first quarter.
But the U.S. began to open things up with a 25-point second quarter to take a 13-point advantage into halftime. And the second half proved much less competitive than the first as Canada managed just 11 points total in the blowout loss.
From 2000 through 2012, Canada won three gold medals and one silver. But the team tumbled all the way to 11th at Rio 2016 and placed fifth at Tokyo 2020.
Now, it’s hoping to return to the podium for the first time in over a decade.
Canada beat Germany 68-52 during the group stage.
“Germany’s a very different challenge, so we just flush this. We don’t need to think about this anymore,” Anderson said. “We can get analytical about it and look at how we beat them and why, and maybe get some good feels watching the tape again and seeing ourselves have success, and get some rest, see our family, do whatever we’ve got to do on our off day to reset and come out here to get a win.”
The Canadian women’s team hits the court Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET to take on the reigning champion Netherlands in their semifinals.
Source Agencies
