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U.S. Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team to Play Canada for Gold at 2007 Parapan American Games
By Susan Katz
// USOC Media Services
// August 17, 2007
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Mikey Paye set the tone early offensively for the U.S., scoring 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
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RIO DE JANEIRO — The U.S. Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team has earned the right to play for the gold medal at the 2007 Parapan American Games. The U.S. shook off a feisty Brazil team, 79-35, in front of a loud hometown crowd on Friday night to get the win. The U.S. team moves on to play top-ranked Canada in Saturday’s championship game. The victory also qualifies the United States for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.
“I think we came into a very hostile environment and stayed strong,” said U.S. head coach Steve Wilson (Racine, Wisc.). “Even when they put on runs, we stayed focused and showed our maturity, which is really nice to see out of such a young team.”
The U.S. is indeed the youngest team in the tournament with an average age of just over 23 years old. Leading the youth revolution on Friday night was co-captain Mikey Paye (Gissen, Germany/Warren, Mich.), who set the tone for the evening by draining two of his 26 points on the very first shot of the game. Also helping the U.S. to victory were Steve Serio (Champaign, Ill./Westbury, N.Y.) with 13 points and Jeremy Lade (Janesville, Wisc.) with 12 points.
“It was nice for the first one to go down,” said Paye. “If it’s my night to step up and I can put it in the hole, that’s awesome and I have fun doing it. But, so much credit goes to the team. We’re working so hard right now and as a young team it’s nice to see us keep growing.”
For the U.S., the path to the top of the podium runs squarely through a Canadian team that has dominated the international men’s wheelchair basketball scene for the past several years. Canada is two-time defending Paralympic gold medalists and defeated the U.S. for gold at last summer’s International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) World Championships.
“We have to minimize our mistakes and work on following our game plan,” said Wilson. “They do a good job of getting you out of your game and making you frantic. We’ll need to stay within ourselves, move the ball well and execute defensively.”
The men’s gold medal match will be contested at 9:15 p.m. (local) at the Rio Multipurpose Arena.
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