Canada’s men saw their wheelchair basketball world championships gold-medal drought extend to five tournaments with a 79-65 loss to Poland on Monday in Ottawa.
Trailing by 11 points entering the fourth quarter, Canada created chances but couldn’t score over the final 10 minutes while its opponent did an admirable job defending standout forward Colin Higgins.
Mateusz Filipiski, Poland’s 38-year-old centre/forward, was the star with a triple-double as he scored a game-high 26 points while adding 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
The Canadians most recently won a men’s world title 20 years ago in Amsterdam and took bronze when Edmonton hosted in 1994.
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Poland, which has never medalled in the men’s world tournament, was sixth in each of the two previous editions in which it competed at worlds in 2010 (Birmingham, England) and 2018 (Hamburg, Germany). It will play in Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
In June, the Poles secured one of the final four places for the Ottawa tourney by defeating hosts Thailand at a repechage tourney in Suphan Buri.
Despite Monday’s 14-point margin, Canada forward Nik Goncin gave his team a chance with a three-point shot that made it a six-point game with 5:36 left on the clock at TD Place.
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Poland trailed 17-14 after the opening quarter and the teams were tied 31-31 at the half.
Andrzej Macek posted 19 points off the bench for Poland with Dominik Mosler adding 18. Forward Marek Wesolowski scored seven of his nine points in a third quarter dominated by Poland, which outscored Canada 25-14.
Goncin topped all Canadians with 22 points, followed by Higgins with 17, including nine in a strong first quarter.
Poland was superior in its shooting from the field, converting 53 per cent of shot attempts to 36 per cent by the Canadians. The Poles also outrebounded Canada 49-38.
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With Canada up 21-19 early in the second quarter, Higgins missed two foul shots but redeemed himself with a two-point lay up a few minutes later.
The Canadians again took a six-point advantage on Blaise Mutware’s basket with 3:55 left in the half.
Both teams missed multiple scoring chances in the closing minutes of the half.
Mosler made it a two-point match at 31-19 with 1:23 on the clock.
Ibrahim Odza’s missed three-point attempt for Canada 11 seconds later proved costly as Poland pulled even at 31-31 with a six-point run. Mutware had a chance to give Canada the lead with 2.4 seconds left but missed.
