Japan defeat UAE; Britain, Morocco win
By KT Report
Published: Tue 26 Apr 2016, 3:46 PM
Last updated: Tue 26 Apr 2016, 5:49 PM
Japan went to the top in Group A with a resounding 67-46 victory over the UAE on the second day of the Eighth Fazza International Wheelchair Basketball Tournament at Al Ahli indoor stadium, Tuesday.
It always seemed like a tall order for Ahmed Jassim's amateur, numerically-limited and part-time squad to compete with their ambitious, talented and young Japanese counterparts, 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."
Thailand overturned an initial 14-11 deficit to down Saudi Arabia 61-49 with an 18-point swing in the second quarter proving decisive in the final reckoning.
Britain bounced back after their first day's loss to strong Thailand to trounce Kuwait 68-36 in Group B. Britain doubled their 13-point, first-quarter buffer (21-8) by the midway point (41-15).
Later in the afternoon, Morocco pummelled the Philippines 81-44. The Filipinos were 11 points in arrears at the end of the first quarter (18-7) and the deficit 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."