GREAT Britain’s men’s wheelchair basketball team secured the bronze medal at the BT Paralympic World Cup, defeating Brazil by 63-43.
The home team started out slowly and trailed throughout the first quarter. But they came out fighting in the second quarter and took the lead in the first two minutes.
Terry Bywater had a great second quarter, putting 12 points on the board to add to his overall top scorer tally of 17.
The Brazilians looked like they were going to take control again in the third quarter, creeping back up to within three points on the scoreboard, but GB dug in and put another ten points between them with Dan Highcock performing well, both offensively and defensively.
GB then dominated and ran away in the fourth quarter, increasing their lead by over 20 points as the Brazilians looked tired and GB defended well.
The last minutes also saw 16-year-old Harry Brown score his first international basket for GB.
Bywater said: “I’m happy with the result. It was a typical English Bulldog performance. We knew we had to come out of this game with a medal and we didn’t want to let the fans down and we showed what the British team is all about.”
The result came after Canada were crowned champions when they beat France 56-46.
Patrick Anderson was once again outstanding for the Canadians, as they led from the start and while they never put together a game-destroying run they did enjoy a 19-point lead during the third period.
As they had been in their game against Brazil yesterday, France were let down by the accuracy of their shooting but Canada’s continuous hustle throughout the game cannot be discounted as a key factor to their win.
ELSEWHERE, the Great Britain team were victorious in the boccia exhibition match.
With the World Cup in Belfast in August the game served as both an exhibition match to demonstrate the sport to a new audience, but more importantly was crucial to their preparations.
Britain, the Beijing 2008 Paralympic gold medallists, got off to a slow start but eventually overwhelmed Ireland 10-1.
www.btparalympicworldcup.com
