TORONTO, Canada – USA Wheelchair Rugby brought home the silver tonight in a hard fought 54-57 loss to Canada.
Another near capacity crowd at the Mississauga Center was treated to four extremely physical periods of wheelchair rugby. The night began with the U.S. up by as many as four forcing multiple turnovers from the Canadians. As the first half came to a close, the United States was up 30-26.
The Canadians came out at the half and it was then their turn to force turnovers from the Americans. The deficit quickly closed and at the end of three periods of play the score was tied at 43 apiece. As the fourth opened, Canada again brought on quick scores and took their first lead of the game within seconds. From there, they would never look back. While the U.S. was able to keep it within reach, the three point advantage the Canadians managed to etch couldn’t be completely chipped away. The Canadians finished out the game with another score from Zak Madell who had 34 for the night.
Top scorers for the United States were Josh Wheeler (San Tan Valley, Arizona) and Chuck Aoki (Minneapolis, Minnesota) both with 15.
In earlier play, Colombia captured the bronze after their 50-48 victory over Brazil.