GB men go four for four and the Netherlands women’s team win the Gold – BWB Communications Volunteer Dylan Cummings reports.
GB men dominated the first quarter of the GBR v Spain, outscoring them 24-2 with precision shooting from top scorer George Bates. The rest of the game was fairly even but Spain couldn’t recover from previous damages and GB won 75-40.
The first women’s semi-final match of Day 4 was a rematch between GB and Germany. Germany secured an early 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter and although GB were strong winning both the second and last quarters, they were unable to make up the deficit. Germany took the win 61-52 with Mareike Miller top scoring 24 points.
The GB women then played against Canada for the bronze medal with the score even at the end of the first and third. GB unfortunately let the lead slip in the second and fourth with Canada’s Arinn Young (22pts), Rosalie Lalonde (16pts) and Cindy Oullet (14pts) all contributing to the score line. This shooting power couldn’t be combatted by GB despite best efforts from Jude Hamer, Helen Freeman and Robyn Love. Canada took the bronze 66-47.
The next GB game featured some new young talent as the GB U24 Women faced 5th placed team Japan. The Japanese side proved too strong for the youngsters as Ikumi Fujii dropped 25 points. The U24s showed strong resilience as Jade Atkin led the charge with 8 points but Japan were the more experienced side so the picked up the 79-16 win.
The Netherlands faced Canada in the other women’s semi-final. After an even first quarter the Dutch pushed hard in the last 30 minutes with the duo of Mariska Beijer and Bo Kramer picking up a total of 55 points between them proving no match for Arinn Young and Cindy Oullet. In the end it was Holland that cruised through to the final by 22 points 66-44.
On the men’s side, the Netherlands played Poland in an extremely close game that only came to an end when the Dutch edged ahead in the final minutes. Holland’s Mattijs Bellers was top scorer with 28 points closely followed by the opposition’s Piotr Luszynski on 22 points. Netherlands claimed the win 66-61.
Continuing with the men’s action Canada faced Japan. The Canadian side exploded with energy in the later stages of the second half with big baskets from the duo of Patrick Anderson and Nik Goncin scoring a total of 51 points between them, with the guards of Chad Jassman and Tyler Miller sneaking in the key and dealing damage often. The big effort contributed to Canada’s 75-65 win.
Day 4 was closed out with the women’s gold medal match between Germany and the Netherlands. The game was close throughout and made for a good final but once again Netherlands’ Mariska Beijer was on fire with a top scoring 31 points which Germany couldn’t find an answer to. After a 64-57 victory, the Netherlands became the Continental Clash 2018 women’s champions, completing the tournament with a 100%-win record.
