Iran went into today’s game against Great Britain still looking for their first win of the competition in the opening game of Day 5 at the Tokyo 2020 wheelchair basketball competition at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza. If one was speculating that GB may show up tired after yesterday’s exhausting 1-point win against the US, GB quickly proved them wrong. At halftime, Iran was down by 9 points. Throughout the second half, this lead grew to 12 points for a final score of 57-69 in GB’s favour. Terry Bywater was GB’s leading man on the court as he executed well (18pts) and managed to make his teammates shine by adding 17 assists to his scoring. 

Germany faced Algeria for their fourth game of the competition. An important game for the Germans as they still have their eyes on the desired 4th seed in Group B. For roughly three-quarters of the game,  Algeria managed to keep it an open game. With the score set at 45-43 with just a little over 12 minutes to go, but Germany decided to accelerate the pace and their effort paid off as they went for a 22-1 run in the subsequent minutes. After the final buzzer, the scoreboard indicated a 71-50 victory for Germany. 

The most anticipated game of the day on the men’s schedule: USA and Australia. With the USA looking to be the first team to defeat Australia and Australia looking to lock in their first place, the stage was set for yet another all-time classic. As expected, fans saw a tight game throughout the first quarter. That said, it seemed that USA’s Head Coach Ron Lykins found the right words during the quarter break, empowering Team USA to go on a 10-0 run early in the second quarter. A wide-range buzzer-beater from Jacob Williams (24 points, 3/5 3-Pointers)  set the score at 38-26 for halftime. Williams’ Curry-alike buzzer-beater seemed to have given the USA the final boost on both ends of the court. For the remainder of the game, the USA locked down their basket and allowed Australia to score as little as 12 points in the second half. Leaving it at a final score of 66-38. Following today’s action, we’ll see 3 teams (Australia, GB, USA)  competing for Group A’s top seed.

For a full wheelchair basketball schedule and results click here.

Pictures: Shingo Ito X-1 & SA Images