Warhawks Help USA to Gold in England
Whitewater, WI – The USA Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team headed to England on May 4th to compete in the Paralympic World Cup as a warmup event for the Paralympics in September. Seven days later the team did an about face and returned the states with a symbolic gold medal after winning the competition, defeating three teams that will be part of the field of 12 in Beijing. The red, white and blue struggled a bit in their first game against perennial world powerhouse Great Britain and lost 58-51 to open up pool play. However, current Warhawks Joe Chambers and Matt Scott played huge roles for Team USA as they bounce back to defeat Germany 68-44, and then beat Sweden 71-60. Team USA finished up pool play as the #2 seed setting up a semifinal match with another current Warhawk Andre Bienek and his German National Team. The US Team and Matt Scott were too much to handle as the US controlled the pace in the second half and defeated the Germans by a score of 60-47. Also playing huge minutes in the semifinal game were Matt Lesperance and Jeremy Lade, along with former Warhawk Jake Counts. The victory over Bienek and his friends set up a championship game rematch between USA and Great Britain, featuring GB’s dominant big man Simon Munn. With Simon controlling the first half GB was able to open up a 6 point lead by halftime, but Simon and his teammates had no answer for the USA’s speed attack in the second half as Matt Scott and Jaime Mazzi, along with 3 three other mid-class speedsters turned up and tempo and pressed GB for the remaining 20 minutes to take control of the game and close the deal on a 60-58 victory. “It was a great trip for our team from several standpoints as we look to prepare for Beijing” said Assistant Coach and current Warhawk Head Coach Tracy Chynoweth. “GB, Sweden, and Germany are among the top teams in the world along with us, Australia and Canada. Being able to see them a couple of times before we put it all on the line in Beijing can only help.”
Team USA will compete in the North American Cup in Birmingham, AL June 19-22 as well as in the Roosevelt Cup in Warm Springs, GA on July 15-22 in additional preparation for their trip to China on August 29th.
For more information on the Paralympic World Cup, go to www.paralympicworldcup.com. For more information on the Paralympics, go to: http://www.usoc.org/11959.htm or http://en.beijing2008.cn/paralympic/
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