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Bitter disappointment was replaced with contemplative optimism in the aftermath of the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team’s final pool match at Tokyo 2020.
Angry and crushed by their capitulation to Great Britain 24 hours earlier, the Gliders salvaged some pride despite completing their preliminaries with a 76-37 loss to Canada at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza on Sunday.
Australia finished the group phase without a win and will now face Algeria in the play-off for ninth on Tuesday.
While the scoreboard looked ugly, particularly after half-time, the atmosphere among the players was distinctly improved on their efforts of the previous evening.
“Yeah it was pretty brutal, we were all pretty upset last night,” captain Georgia Munro-Cook said.
“Yesterday was a game we thought we could win and we didn’t do a very good job.
“Tonight we did a much better job of following the game plan and we managed to put about 20 minutes together of pretty good basketball.”
Amber Merritt’s fine Tokyo campaign continued with 21 points and six rebounds to continue to underline her value to the inexperienced squad.
The Gliders are on a huge learning curve after failing to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics and being starved of time together, and international competition, due to the pandemic.
Munro-Cook is one of 10 first-time basketball Paralympians trying to rebuild the Gliders’ international standing.
“It’s definitely been a struggle. We’ve had to play against men’s teams and they tend to play a bit differently so it’s not the same as playing internationally,” she said.
“Being so isolated, and even with all the different state restrictions, not being able to be together as a team has made it quite difficult.”
Monday will be used for rest and preparation to try and finish the Tokyo tournament on a high.
“We played against them at Worlds three years ago and beat them pretty convincingly but by all accounts they have improved a bit since then,” Munro-Cook said.
CANADA 76 def. AUSTRALIA 37 (Merritt 21 points, 6 rebounds; Vinci 8 points)
NEXT GAME -TUESDAY
Play-off for 9th: Australia v Algeria (9am Tokyo / 10am AEDT) at Ariake Arena
By: Paralympics Australia
Posted: 29 August 2021
