The last women’s quarter-final of day 7 in the wheelchair basketball at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games saw hosts Japan face the current World Champions the Netherlands. The Dutch started the game doing what they like best: pressing and scoring. Keeping Japan at 6 points within the first 10 minutes whilst they scored 28 points at a field goal percentage of 74.
The Netherlands continued to put on a show and went into halftime with a 34 points lead.
Unfortunately for the smaller Japanese team, also in the second half, as they struggled to contain the Dutch power play and match-up to the height of the Dutch.
The Japanese lost the quarter-final by a significant margin, the final score 82-24. In a very strong Dutch collective effort, Netherlands’ Mariska Beijer was on fire hitting 38 points and 11 rebounds.
Beijer reiterated the advantage the Dutch had saying:
“They don’t have a really tall player and that’s convenient for me because I’m big. We kept pressure on the shooters and if they cannot shoot, they cannot score.”
If it’s any consolation, at least Japan will get a chance to play one last game on their home turf and to hopefully finish the event on a positive note in their Classification Game for 5th place. The Netherlands will take on Germany in Thursday’s semi-final for a classic European clash.
Looking ahead to their semi-final game against Germany, Beijer added:
“I’m excited. They kicked us out in Rio (2016) and London (2012) so I’m really looking forward to paying them back a little bit.”
