Japan defeat UAE at the Fazza International Wheelchair Basketball tournament

Sport360 staff 12:46 26/04/2016
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  • The UAE and Japan go head-to-head in a hard fought clash.

    It always seemed like a tall order for Ahmed Jassim’s amateur part-time side to compete with their in-form counterparts from Japan, who have their sights set on the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in four years’ time.

    Their early-morning encounter proved as much too, with Kazuyuki Kyoya’s men establishing a nine-point lead at the end of the first quarter (23-14) and progressively pulling further and further clear as the match action wore on.

    Indeed, Japan held double-digit advantages of 13 and 14 points at the start of the third (35-22) and fourth quarters (50-36) respectively before eventually emerging as the clear winners by a considerable 21 points.

    “That was a much better performance than our prior showing against Morocco in terms of what we need to focus on,” Kyoya commented.

    “We’re trying to set a very high defensive line further up the court in order to catch out our opponents’ offence. I’m really happy as we did very well in that particular regard.”

    That was the biggest winning margin achieved at this event up until the very next outing as Great Britain bettered – and battered – Kuwait by 32 points in a one-sided, 68-36 rout over in Group B.

    Providing the perfect riposte to an agonising opening-day defeat to Thailand they were presumably still smarting from, the Brits had doubled their 13-point, first-quarter buffer (21-8) by the midway point (41-15).

    The finals of the event take place on Wednesday.

    The remainder of this tussle was merely about consolidating GB’s already considerable cushion and they did that through to the buzzer.

    That sensational scoreline was soon surpassed though with Morocco pummeling the Philippines by 37 points with an 81-44 success.

    The Filipinos were 11 points in arrears at the end of the first quarter (18-7) and that deficit had stretched to 20 by the start of the fourth (53-33), where they shipped 28 more points in a decidedly lacklustre loss overall.

    “This is a big help for us because we’re a developing team,” conceded the Philippines coach Vernon Perea.

    “We have only just started our five-year programme, so we’re very lucky to have been invited to this tournament and we don’t expect to win many matches here.

    “Our opponents are very well-oiled machines that have already been practising for years, so I guess we should use this as the starting point in our programme. We simply have to gain experience from it.”

    Meanwhile, Thailand overturned an initial 14-11 deficit to down Saudi Arabia 61-49 with an 18-point swing in the second quarter, which proved decisive in the final reckoning.

    This competition is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, and organized and supervised by the Dubai Club for the Disabled (DCD), with the support of strategic partners the Hamdan bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC) and in collaboration with the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF), the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare (GAYSW), the Dubai Sports Council and the UAE Paralympic Committee.

    The tournament’s two sets of semi-finals take place on Wednesday, where the fourth-placed side in Group B face the team that finished third in Group A at 9am.

    The third-placed country in Group B shall then encounter the nation that ended up fourth in Group A two hours later (11am).

    The Group A winners will lock horns with the Group B runners-up in the lunchtime tip-off (1pm) before the outright victors from Group B clash with Group A’s second-ranked squad thereafter at 3pm.

    Group A: Japan, Morocco, Philippines, UAE.

    Group B: Great Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Thailand.

    Results: Group A: Japan 68-51 Morocco, Philippines 58-64 UAE, Japan 67-46 UAE, Morocco 81-44 Philippines.

    Group B: Great Britain 51-54 Thailand, Kuwait 50-56 Saudi Arabia, Great Britain 68-36 Kuwait, Saudi Arabia 49-61 Thailand.

    Wednesday’s Fixtures:

    9am: A3 vs B4.
    11am: B3 vs A4.
    1pm: A1 vs B2.
    3pm: B1 vs A2.

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