Canada falls short in tightly contested women's wheelchair basketball semi against Dutch

It was nearly an upset for the ages.

Instead, Canada's women's wheelchair basketball team will play for bronze after dropping a tightly contested semifinal, 72-61, against the reigning champion Netherlands on Friday at Bercy Arena.

The Canadians will meet China in the third-place game on Sunday at the Paris Paralympics, while the Dutch will battle the U.S. for gold. Live coverage of Canada's game will begin at 4:30 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Paralympics app and CBC Gem.

"We just want to come out and f---ing kill them, pardon my language. But I mean it. We're going to come out and be looking for blood," said Canada's Kady Dandeneau, who posted a triple-double of 24 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

Canada's Arinn Young led all scorers with 29 points, while Bo Kramer paced the Netherlands with 25 points and chipped in nine rebounds and nine assists.

The Canadian women have not reached the Paralympic podium since 2004, when a bronze medal in Athens ended a run of three straight golds.

But Canada nearly assured that streak would end with a hard-fought game against the Dutch. The Canadians lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals at last year's world championship, in the Osaka Cup last February, in four friendlies in June 2022 and even in the quarters at Rio 2016.

Yet Canada nearly pulled of the surprise victory on the biggest stage of them all.

"This was a very tough game," Kramer said. "The Canadian girls did a very good job. We were a bit nervous at times, but I think this was one that showed what we're made of, what we're capable of, and that we play a game for 40 minutes. And yeah, we're in, we're in the final."

After going down 16-3 early, Canada ripped off a 9-0 run to get within four after the first quarter. By halftime, the Canadians held a two-point lead — and firmly had momentum on their side.

The teams exchanged the lead a few times in the third quarter as neither side was able to pull away.

But it was the Dutch, keyed by a three-pointer from Kramer that was the lone triple of the game from either side, that inched forward in the final frame.

The defending gold medallists built up a six-point lead for some breathing room, and after Canada cut it back to two points, the European side once again took control.

With just over a minute remaining, an unsportsmanlike foul was called against Canada's Rosalie Lalonde, which led to a four-point possession and subsequent eight-point advantage for the Netherlands.

"I felt like we got the short end of the stick there. I felt some of the calls were one-sided. Most of the game was pretty even until the last part of the game. I don't know if that would've changed the result, but it definitely helped them," Dandeneau said.

Canada was unable to recover in the final minute.

"I'm really pissed off about it and I think it's BS, but I'm happy with our team," Dandeneau added. "We stuck together, we pushed, but I still felt that we belong in the gold-medal match."