The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team opened their 2024 Paralympic campaign with a 70-65 loss against China at Bercy Arena in Paris on Thursday.
Xuemei Zhang scored 30 points and Tonglei Zhang finished with a 12-assist double-double to bring China to second place in the Group A standings behind Great Britain.
Kady Dandeneau (Pender Island, B.C.) put up 28 points and Rosalie Lalonde (Montreal, QC) had 18 in a losing effort for Canada, who now sits third in Group A ahead of Spain.
Canada got off to a strong start, opening with a 12-4 lead through the first five minutes of the game. Captain Cindy Ouellet (Rivière-du-Loup, QC) and top scorer Dandeneau led the way early on, combining for 13 of Canada’s 15 points in the first quarter.
China’s offense began to heat up, finishing the opening quarter on a 15-3 run led by Giudi Lyu and Xuejing Chen to take a 19-15 lead. After China managed to build a seven-point lead in the second, a series of turnovers allowed Canada to pull themselves within four, with China taking a 37-33 lead into the half.
Canada outscored China 22-16 in the third, with Lalonde taking a 55-53 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
However, China found their offensive groove once again, opening the fourth quarter with a 14-2 run with 10 of those points coming from Xuemei Zhang. This gave the Chinese team their biggest lead of the game, making it 67-57 with 5:06 remaining.
The Canadians managed to outscore China 8-3 in the remaining minutes of the game, but that was not enough to even things up as China went on to secure the victory.
“First of all, the atmosphere was electric, and it’s a special environment to coach and play in,” said Canadian head coach Michele Sung, to Wheelchair Canada. “I was really happy with our prep; we were locked into the gameplan.
“If this was our starting point, I’m really excited – we have a lot to build off of from this game, for sure.”
Turnovers proved to be the biggest difference-maker in this contest, as China finished with 15 points on turnovers to Canada’s 5. China also distributed the ball remarkably well in their Paralympic debut, finishing with 29 assists as a team to Canada’s 17.
After finishing fifth at the Tokyo 2020 games, Canada booked their ticket to Paris after a dominant performance at the 2024 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) Repechage Tournament in Osaka, Japan earlier this year. They won all of their group stage games under new head coach Michelle Sung (Millgrove, ON) and defeated Algeria 88-30 in the final for a qualification victory.
China, who took home the silver medal at the 2021 Paralympic Games, enters this tournament as one of the top competing nations yet again. They have since claimed silver at the 2023 IWBF World Championships in Dubai and won the IWBF Asia Oceania Championships earlier this year to qualify for the Paralympics.
Canada will look to bounce back on Saturday when they take on Great Britain, who started their tournament off in dominant fashion with a 69-34 victory over Spain. Tip off is set for 4:30 AM EST.
