USA teams win inaugural ITOC titles
In this summer of USA versus Japan in women’s sports – Japan took the soccer World Cup while the USA prevailed in softball - the Americans had opened the tournament against the up and coming side across the Pacific. In that game the USA took the lead in the second quarter and kept extending it. But a more resilient Japan showed up in the final having already upset Germany, still the world’s second best team, to make the final.
After the USA ran to a 6-0 lead, Japan stormed back to lead by eight after one quarter and held by two at the half. Slowly and surely though, the Americans with their 12-deep roster wore them down and took the lead by one going into the fourth. From there, it was all red, white and blue as the defending Paralympic and World champions cruised to a 62-47 win.
In the men’s final, the USA Blue team – the Americans played a split squad to give sixteen players more court time – played Great Britain for the second day in a row, having won the first match 67-43. In the gold game, tournament MVP Jay Nelms and his mates gave no quarter again running up a 21 point lead after three and holding on to win 55-48.
Australia’s men beat Germany 64-61 for fifth place while Canada defeated USA White 69-61 for third.
Germany’s women took third over the Netherlands 60-56.
The tournament was hosted by the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) and sponsored by Visit Lake Norman and the Cornelius and Huntersville Parks & Recreation Departments.
Selected games were webcast live and are archived at http://www.livestream.com/
Saturday Scores
Men
First Place: USA Blue 55 Great Britain 48
Third Place: Canada 69 USA White 61
Fifth Place: Australia 64 Germany 61
Women
First Place: USA 62 Japan 47
Third Place: Germany 60 Netherlands 56
Friday Scores
Men
Germany 60 USA White 55
USA Blue 60 Canada 49
USA White 84 Japan 44
Great Britain 75 Australia 70
Canada 73 Germany 59
Australia 75 Japan 61
USA Blue 67 Great Britain 43
Women
Japan 78 Canada 63
USA 62 Germany 46
Japan 52 Netherlands 51
USA 59 Canada 47
Thursday Scores
Men
Great Britain 70 Canada 50
Germany 59 Japan 52
Canada 67 Australia 52
USA White 62 Great Britain 55
USA Blue 74 Germany 52
Canada 74 Japan 39
USA Blue 66 Austalia 52
Women
Netherlands 70 Canada 66
Japan 67 Germany 58
Germany 61 Canada 46
USA 61 Netherlands 44
Wednesday Scores
Men
USA White 78 Australia 59
USA Blue 61 Japan 34
Great Britain 64 Germany 55
Great Britain 66 Japan 62
Australia 71 Germany 61
Canada 67 USA White 64
Women
Germany 61 Netherlands 45
USA 59 Japan 42
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
