GB Win BT Paralympic World Cup
GB are the BT Paralympic World Cup champions in the men’s Wheelchair Basketball, after defeating Canada 53-24 in today’s final.
Coach Murray Treseder finally won his first title, as he restored Simon Munn, Jon Pollock, Abdi Jama and Ian Sagar, who had been rested in the final group game against Australia.
GB led for all but three minutes of the men's final against Canada. Pollock’s three baskets from outside the arc contributed to his game-high of 17 points while Sagar contributed with 12 points and 13 rebounds, 11 of which were defensive. Munn was equally impressive under the basket with 10 rebounds and he shared scoring duties with Jama as both grabbed 6 points.
Canada were not as efficient as GB from the floor and as such David Eng took 13 points, Peter Richard 9 and Adam Lancia 8.
Jon Pollock said, “It was a good game. It was great to be in the final with Canada. They are really strong team, even though they were missing some of their strongest players.
“I feel that we are gradually getting better. Today we were much better than two-three weeks ago during trainings. So to win the BT Paralympic World Cup is a big step for us.”
2009 champions Australia had to settle for bronze, albeit in emphatic fashion by beating European champions Italy 65-32. In the women’s competition Canada beat defending champions the Netherlands 62-46 to win gold and Australia took bronze in their Manchester debut after a 59-24 victory over GB.
In the women’s final The Netherlands started strong, however, Canada’s Janet McLachlan once again proved unstoppable in the paint, in both offense and defence, as her team took the BT Paralympic World Cup title.
The former rugby player averaged 20 plus points throughout the tournament and will undoubtedly be one to watch at the forthcoming World Championships.
McLachlan said, “It was fantastic to win the BT Paralympic World Cup, we hadn’t thought about winning it was just small goals and the process to get better each game. Winning is the icing on the cake.
It was double bronze for Australia, as the men overcame Italy and the women beat GB.
The Rollers shot 53 per cent from the floor and had three players in double digits. Brad Ness led the boards with 16; Justin Eveson took 14 while Shaun Norris grabbed 10. The Australian defence forced Italy to remain in single figures of which Mohamed Bargo and Matteo Cavagnini both top scored on six.
Dylan Alcott said, “It’s good preparation for the World Championships. They (Italy) are a great team and so it's good to get a win over them. We definitely did not go into that game underestimating them.
“To get the confidence of the win from that game will be a massive boost ahead of the World Championships for sure. We’re going back to Australia on Tuesday, where we will go to a performance camp, before returning to Birmingham in three weeks time.
By contrast the women’s Gliders team were made to work hard in the first half by GB, but they soon got into their stride and amassed a comfortable lead. Cobi Crispin recorded 14 points, Liesel Tesch 12 and Kylie Gauchi 10. GB’s Louise Sugden hit five, but also fouled out in the last period, while Laurie Williams shared her points contribution.
GB’s head coach admitted that the tournament had been a learning curve for his young team.
Garry Peel said, “Today’s match was a learning experience, we were still aiming to win and what we have learnt today is that we have not played our best. We’ve got a young team here and the young players were very nervous but so were some of the more experience players so we have got to work on that.
“Overall it was a good week, we stamped our authority in the beginning of that game against Australia and the girls don’t want to lose but we did make some mistakes and at the end we just couldn't score, we kept turning the ball over.”
The team’s will all be back in the UK in just six week’s time for the IWBF World Championships, being held in Birmingham.
The result of today’s Wheelchair Basketball matches means that Europe and Rest of the World are still tied on top of the overall BT Paralympic World Cup trophy leader board.