Great Britain defeated Canada 66-52 in the men’s wheelchair basketball quarterfinals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics on Wednesday.
Team Canada will now play Germany on Thursday for seventh and eighth place.
Patrick Anderson had a game-high 22 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists for Canada (2-4). Former UNBC student Bo Hedges from Fort St. John added eight points in the loss, as did Colin Higgins and Lee Melymick.
“We’ve been close. They’re the defending World Champions. We were leading, but we relaxed, and they came out stronger in the fourth quarter,” said head coach Matteo Feriani. “They’re a lot more experienced than us. We were close; we were right there. We kept improving throughout the game.”
Team Canada had a 10-point lead on an 8-0 run in the third quarter, and the Canadians held a 43-42 lead through three periods, but Great Britain (5-1) outscored Canada 24-9 in the fourth quarter.
Canada finished shooting 37 per cent from the field while Great Britain shot 47 per cent. Anderson paced the Canadians with 14 points and nine rebounds at halftime as Canada held a 30-26 lead.
The Canadians also led after one period, 16-14, on 8 of 19 shooting - Higgins, Melymick and Anderson each had four points in the opening quarter.
Team Canada will now play Germany, who lost to Spain 71-68 in the quarterfinals.
