Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Wallace | 160506-F-WU507-013: Team US and Team Australia compete in a wheel chair basketball...... read more read more
ORLANDO, Fla., May 11, 2016 — The United Kingdom will take on Denmark and the U.S. team will take on the Netherlands during the wheelchair basketball semifinals, but the Brits and Americans have each other in their sights for the finals tomorrow during the 2016 Invictus Games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World here.
“It’s going to be an absolutely fantastic match,” said British team coach Royal Marines Maj. Scott Wallace. “There are two very strongly founded teams with great competitive spirit, very well matched. It’s going to be fast. It’s going to be furious. It’s going to be a great spectacle for the fans.”
The British team earned the gold medal in 2014 and aims to defend its title, said Wallace’s wife, Royal Navy Lt. Kirsty Wallace, a weapons engineer and paraplegic who plays on the team.
British Teamwork
“It’s going to be a really tight match,” she said. “It will be close, but we’re confident that we can win it. We’ve got the skills. We’ve got the team mentality. We can pull together and pull through.”
Scott Wallace said he believes the American team’s greatest strength is its transition speed and accuracy on-basket.
“For the British, it’s great drill foundation,” Wallace said, “and it’s going to be the team cohesion and the teamwork, so we’ll see which one of those comes out on top. The U.K. has stronger defense. The Americans have a stronger offense, so it’s a good matchup, which makes it an interesting game. But overall, the Brits are in it to win it.”
Medically retired Marine Corps Cpl. Anthony McDaniel said the American team’s strongest asset is its defense.
American Cohesion
“If they feel offense is our strongest asset, they’ve got a good surprise coming, … because we’ve got a really strong defense as well,” he said. “We’re not really worried about scoring, because we know we can do that, but we’re really going to focus on defense because if we can score, and we can’t stop anybody, then it defeats the purpose if we get stopped. We’re going to focus on defense, and then we’ll let our offense take its course.”
McDaniel said his team has great team cohesion, as well. “We’ve all got great chemistry together,” he said. “We all communicate well, even though we don’t all play together all the time. When we get together, we all know what we’re doing. It’s never personal. It’s all positive. Some of us have played together. A few of us have played against each other, so we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we’ll use it to our benefit on the court.”
Regardless of who wins, members of both teams said they do enjoy playing the sport with each other. Some of the best players from the British, American and Danish teams got together on the court yesterday for an impromptu scrimmage match.
“We were just enjoying playing basketball together,” Kirsty Wallace said. “We’ve all got shared experiences, we all love basketball, so it’s all about the game. We want to showcase how good wheelchair basketball can be and make it as exciting as possible.”
(Follow Shannon Collins on Twitter: @CollinsDoDNews)
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2016 20:24 |
| Story ID: | 197902 |
| Location: | ORLANDO, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 49 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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