Monday, 18th July, 2011

Australia has beaten Mexico 56-47 today to secure a spot in the finals of the Women`s U25 2011 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Canada. It was a good rebound win following yesterday's disappointing 70-51 loss to the strong USA team.

WheelKings rookie Caitlin de Wit was again a solid starter, playing 27 minutes, hitting 2 of 2 field goals and handing out 3 assists. Cobi Crispin led the scoring for Australia with 21 points and she also grabbed 9 rebounds along with 4 assists. Bridie Kean found form with 19 points at 60% accuracy, plus 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the Aussies who scored a shocking 2 points in the first quarter. Down 7-2 at the first break, they settled down to play much better offensively and eventually got their shooting up to a very respectable 43% for the game.

Still down 24-21 at the half, Australia really applied the pressure in the third term, keeping Mexico to just 7 points while piling on 18 of their own to lead 38-31. The Aussies pushed the lead out to 10 in the fourth quarter and looked comfortable before Mexico struck back mainly through the efforts of the magnificent Floralia Estrada (27 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists) who hit a quick 6 points to narrow the lead to just 2 with 2:29 to go.

Australia didn't panic and it was Crispin who hit 3 of 4 free throws to take the lead back out to 5 and then Kean who hit the last 2 baskets to seal the 9 point win. A major key to the victory was the smothering defence which forced Mexico into 23 turnovers while the Aussie girls took care of the basketball with only 9 turnovers.

Coach Hewson was really pleased with his team's ability to overcome the terrible start and then keep their nerve down the stretch, making free throws when it counted:

"Seeing Kobi find her shooting touch was just what we needed and her clutch free throws gave her confidence a huge boost for the finals," he said, "and the group is feeling good knowing we can come back like we did in our game today."

Full stats for the game are at http://www.fibalivestats.com/matches/4242/03/76/61/98z2tasdAdpk/

Australia will now face Asia-Oceania foes Japan in the quarter-finals. Based on the form of both teams so far, this game will be very close. Watch the game on live stream at 3.15am Wednesday, 20th July (Australian EST). The link will be on http://www.u25wwbc.com/schedule-results/schedule-and-results/

 

Photo 1: Cobi Crispin

Photo 2: Bridie Kean (photos courtesy of WBC/Kevin Bogetti-Smith) 

More photos starting at bottom of page http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheelchairbasketball/page4