Another classic battle between Canada and USA is anticipated in a women’s wheelchair basketball quarterfinal set for Tuesday at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
The last time the two teams met was in the final at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru. It was an epic battle with Kady Dandeneau scoring 25 points to lead the Canadians to a thrilling 67-64 victory for the gold.
After Canada’s dominance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, USA has taken over in the women’s event with four total Paralympic titles, with its Rio 2016 gold being its third in the last four tournaments.
Canada wants to wrestle that title back up North.
‘’I’m really looking forward to playing the States,’’ said Canada’s Arinn Young, ninth in tournament scoring with 12.8 points per game in the round robin. ‘’They always bring their best competition and so do we, so you know, we have a nice little rivalry with that.’’
The Canadians completed the round robin with three wins and one loss for second in their pool behind undefeated Germany. They opened the tournament with an impressive 73-54 victory over Great Britain, the 2018 world championships silver medallists. Then they thumped Japan 61-35 before a 59-57 loss to Germany. But Canada bounced back to beat Australia 76-37.
Young believes that loss to Germany may have been a necessary evil.
‘’I honestly think us losing to Germany was a blessing in disguise because I always want hard games and that is definitely what we’re going to be getting from now on,’’ she said. ‘’I’m not too worried. If we play confident and play our game, we’ll be fine.’’
As was the case in Lima, Dandeneau has been leading the charge on offence. She is third in tournament scoring with 22.3 points per game and is first in three pointers and second in free throws and rebounds.
The Americans completed the round robin at 2-2 for third in the other pool. The top USA threats offensively include Courtney Ryan, the tournament leader in assists, and sharpshooter Rose Hollermann.
‘’All of the players on their starting five over the past five years are there so we know them well,’’ said Canada’s head coach Marc Antoine Ducharme. ‘’We already know what our game plan will be for sure.’’
The showdown is scheduled for 11:30 p.m. (ET) Monday night in Canada which is 12:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon in Tokyo. Audiences is Canada can watch it live HERE.
The other quarterfinal match-ups are: Germany-Spain, China-Great Britain and Netherlands-Japan.
