Gold and Silver for Canada at Parapan American Games
With the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games now over, Canada will be bringing home medals in both men's and women's wheelchair basketball.
Having both reached the final in both tournaments, each team would face eternal rivals the USA for the gold medal. Canada and the USA had yet to see defeat in Lima at all, and now the pressure was on to keep that record intact.
In the women's final the USA were in control in the first quarter, where they took an early lead following an eight-point unbeaten streak. After leading by nine points, Canada closed the gap to one point at half time and when the game resumed took their first lead of the game.
It didn’t last long, as the USA put themselves back in front behind their top scorers Lindsey Zurbrugg (16 points) and Rebecca Murray (22 points and 12 assists) but Arinn Young tied the scores with a three and Kathleen Dandeneau followed suit, giving Canada a crucial late lead of ten.
Dandeneau finished with 25 points and 10 assists and Arinn Young had 20 and 10 herself as the team scored a famous 67-64 win over the USA and net the gold medal for 2019.
Meanwhile, after a decisive 62-42 win over Colombia in the semi final, Canada’s men’s team set up a game for the gold medal against the Americans, hoping they could make it two for two.
In the game itself, the USA dominated possession early and often while converting it into points on their offensive end. With 12 and 11 points respectively, Nikola Goncin and Patrick Anderson did their best to try and turn things around for Canada, but after a 26-9 third quarter and no let up from the Americans the result seemed increasingly inevitable.
Joshua Turek led all scorers with 18 points for the victorious American team while Canada had to settle for the silver medal as their opponents took top spot on the podium.
