Above: Canada’s Kady Dandenault vs Spain – photo courtesy WBC
submitted by Wheelchair Basketball Canada
The Canadian Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team rebounded with a decisive 63-34 victory against Spain on Saturday, picking up its first win at the 2018 World Championships in Hamburg. After a shaky start in the opening quarter, Canada flipped the script the rest of the way with a solid game at both ends of the court.
The Canadians utilized their depth on the bench and a relentless push on defence to successfully shut down the Spain offense to secure the comeback victory.
“We have good players on the bench and who have worked hard all year. I have a lot of confidence in my bench and today they gave us another boost and different energy that worked well,” said Canadian head coach Marc Antoine Ducharme (Chambly, Que.).
Canadian Arinn Young (Legal, Alta.) once again paced the floor with a game-high 19 points. Teammate Cindy Ouellet (Quebec, Que.) had 14 points, while Kady Dandeneau (Pender Island, B.C.) dropped 10 points in just over 12 minutes of action.
“It was a big win and we needed that,” said Dandeneau. “It’s a good way to ease ourselves into our next game against Australia. It takes a lot to come back when you go down by 15 points. So, I think that was really good for our team. It brings us all together. Hopefully we can get a good start against Australia because that is where we have been struggling so far in the tournament.”
The Canadian women will face Australia at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday in their next game, while the Canadian men are also back in action to take on host Germany at 12 p.m. ET.
