Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team was eliminated from medal contention with a 63-48 loss to the United States.
The Canadians were unable to get much going on offence as they shot 34 per cent from the field, including 38 per cent from the paint — their worst of the tournament.
“We were rushing a lot of our shots,” said Arinn Young after the loss. “In the end, that’s pretty much what cost us.”
Young led the way for the Canadians, scoring 11 points with six assists, but the team’s fate was sealed by the Americans’ 17-7 run to close the first half.
After defeating the U.S. 67-64 for gold at the Parapan American Games in 2019, Team Canada could not repeat its success.
In the Canadian loss, they were unable to connect from beyond the arc. Kady Dandeneau, one of the team’s stars, went 0/5 from deep and finished shooting 27 per cent. She would end with eight points, 11 shy of her tournament average.
When it came time to mount a comeback, the Red and White were only able to find the bottom of the net four times in the final seven minutes. Despite coach Marc Antoine Ducharme turning to the bench to try and jumpstart the offence, it was not enough against the American starters, four of whom played the entire game.
To pair with the poor shooting, Canada’s defence was unable to slow the United States’ top players Rose Hollermann and Natalie Schneider, who scored 19 and 18 points respectively.
Running the U.S. offence was Courtney Ryan, who picked apart the Canadian defence on her way to 13 assists.
With the loss, the Canadians will finish out their tournament with a chance to play for fifth on Friday morning at 2 a.m. EST.
“We’re all pretty hurt right now and we’re going to continue to hurt,” said Young, about the upcoming classification round. “We’re just going to try to end this tournament on a positive note with a potential win.”