Canada Places 6th at 2017 Men’s U23 World Wheelchair Basketball Championship
Canada admits defeat after admirable effort against Germany
Game 38: Canada v Germany
The Canadian Men’s U23 Team end their run at the world championship with a sixth place finish after an admirable effort against Team Germany. The Germans claimed the 76-68 victory against Canada.
Germany dominated the first quarter and carved out a nine point lead that would help them secure the win. With an increase in intensity the Canadians successfully kept the Germans from finding the net in the second quarter and managed to outscore Germany 18-15 to trail by six.
The Canadians kept the pressure on Germany and with sharp shooting from Ben Moronchuk and Liam Hickey ensured it remained a tight game. With one minute remaining in the fourth quarter it was a five point game for Germany but Canada was unable to contend with the German defense to find the win.
Moronchuk and Hickey each produced 24 points for Canada while Germany’s Leon Schöneberg scored the game-high 29 points. Nico Dreimüller contributed a double double for Germany with 15 points and 11 assists.
“We’ve just improved in such a short amount of time. I’m just so proud of these guys, they play with their hearts and their emotion. Canada’s on their sleeve with Wheelchair Basketball Canada right there as well. Thank you to Wheelchair Basketball Canada for giving me the opportunity to coach these wonderful kids,” said Darrell Nordell, head coach of Canada. “We know Germany is a tough team, they come out on us, they come up on chairs and we have to compete and we have to find where their mismatches are. We had a hard time at first matching up to some of their bigger guys, they were definitely going after our lower classes and that’s just good coaching. Congratulations to Peter and the group that he’s got there too, they’re a great bunch of athletes, we enjoyed playing them.”
Captain of the Canadian team, Alex Hayward, also discussed the team’s overall performance, “The tournament went well, I’m pretty sure we exceeding everyone’s expectations in how hard we competed, and not giving up which was our biggest goal. Our big thing was no regrets at the end of it and I think we achieved that.”
About Wheelchair Basketball Canada
Wheelchair Basketball Canada is the national sport governing body responsible for the organization of the sport in Canada. It is a non-profit, charitable organization that is committed to excellence in the development, support and promotion of wheelchair basketball programs and services for all Canadians from grassroots to high performance. Wheelchair basketball is a fast-paced, hard-hitting, competitive sport in which Canada is held in high esteem around the world for winning a combined six gold, one silver, and one bronze medal in the last seven Paralympic Games. For more information, please visit www.wheelchairbasketball.ca.