The USA women’s wheelchair basketball team has booked a berth in the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Paralympics after overcoming Great Britain in an aggressive final-quarter showdown.  

Bronze medalists at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, the Americans were victorious 59-52 on Wednesday evening at Bercy Arena. They’ll face China on Friday to vie for a ticket in Sunday’s gold medal playoffs.  

Among the top scorers for the USA were captain Becca Murray (12 points), Rose Hollermann (15 points), Ixhelt Gonzalez (16 points) and Courtney Ryan (10 points).  

Great Britain kept the US team on a tight leash for most of the match, but the Americans let their advantage slip away. Early in the last quarter, Team GB managed to level the scores at 46-46 then inched in front. But the USA didn’t hit panic stations. Murray and Gonzalez, both quickly found the net and started rebuilding the buffer.  

“I just think the momentum changed, and at the end, they had the momentum,” said Jade Atkin, one of Great Britain’s top scorers who netted 15 points.  

“It was a hard fight. We all fought hard. I’m just knackered now.”  

Gonzalez, the youngest player on the US team at 20, was a force of nature, also taking 11 rebounds.  

“We wanted this so much, and I think we came out on top because we were so gritty. We were so aggressive on our chairs in the last quarter,” Gonzalez said.   

Hollermann praised Gonzalez, characterizing her as the “fire right now offensively” for the team.  

“She comes off the bench with so much intensity, she’s playing so composed, she’s getting to the basket.” .  

Focus shifts to China  

The Chinese team are regimented in their style of play which meant the US had to be disciplined, Hollermann warned.  

“China has been doing the same thing since 2018. They’ve been super excellent at it,” she said.  

“We just have to stay focused on ourselves and remember that if we play the basketball, we know we can then, we will be in the gold medal game on Sunday hopefully.”  

Earlier, China polished off Japan 62-50.  At the Tokyo Games, China had to settle for silver, but coach Chen Qi declared his team was: “prepared to go all the way.”  

Player Lin Suiling said her team’s strength was speed and agility.  

“We are a smaller team though, which can be a weakness,” she said.  

Dutch hunting another gold  

Meanwhile, defending champions Netherlands had a comfortable 61-43 win over Spain.  

Dutch sharpshooter Mariska Beijer was formidable, scoring 34 points. Even though the Spanish team had put a target on her back, she was impossible to contain.  

“We tried hard to stop her but (Beijer) was too good,” player Virginia Perez admitted.  

Coach Franck Belen said the Dutch side had given his young squad a masterclass.  

“It’s small mistakes. Layups you miss against these (tops) teams, they will punish you immediately. That’s why they are champions,” he said, adding that his team needs more opportunities to compete regularly to improve.  

Beijer characterised it as a “very physical game” and was disappointed with her team’s sluggish start.  

“We were hoping to start a little bit better,” she said.  

“We were shooting way below our normal percentage.”  

Curse broken 

The Dutch will face Canada in the semis after the Maple Leafs dominated Germany 71-53, with Kady Dandeneau lethal in offense bagging 33 points for the winning side.  

“That (win) was the main goal to get out of the perpetual fifth place. It feels good to bring Canada back to that elite level,” said Dandeneau. 

Teammate Arinn Young, who finished with 18 points to her name, said it was wonderful to be able to keep playing in her “favourite arena and atmosphere” of her entire career. 

“Canada has lost in so many quarter finals in the last 10 years, so it feels like a curse has been broken.” 

Catch more wheelchair basketball action on Thursday.