Canada’s hope for a wheelchair rugby medal ended on Saturday with a 50-46 defeat to Japan in the final preliminary round game for both teams, at the Paralympics in Paris.

Veteran Zak Madell had 27 tries for the Canadians, wrapping up a superb three game run in which no teammate scored more than seven.

Yukinobu Ike (15), Daisuke Ikezaki (14), and Katsuya Hashimoto (11), led the group winners’ balanced attack.

The chips began to fall for Canada when Madell was sent to the penalty box for a technical foul just 2:30 into the first quarter, leading to a man disadvantage at a bad time – while trying to inbound.

That was deflected away by Japan’s Ryuji Kusaba, and scored later by Ike. Madell later had another pass poked away by Ike which was gathered Ikezaki for the try.

In the dying seconds of the first quarter, Japan’s defence forced Canada to consume two valuable timeouts, the latter due to a stunning tackle by Hashimoto. They were rewarded for their efforts as the Canadian offence came up empty-handed, ending the first quarter 13-9 in favor of Japan.

In the second quarter, the red and white managed two steals and scores between the 1:50 and 3:05 mark to cut the deficit in half.

With 26.5 seconds left, Ikezaki threw a mistimed pass that allowed Canada’s Anthony Letourneau to collect and Madell to score to level the game 25-25 at halftime.

CANADIANS FALL BACK

When play resumed in the third, Canada burning its timeouts from the first quarter would come back to haunt them, as Letourneau would get picked off by Hashimoto after throwing a desperate pass due to the shot clock winding down and no timeouts remaining. Ike would score on the following possession.

An uncharacteristic out-of-bounds turnover in the fourth by Canada would put Japan in position to wrap things up.

Japan, along with Team USA, who won their preliminary stage match against Germany, will progress from Group B to the medal rounds.

Canada will be playing in the placing rounds where they will first face off against Denmark.