Wheelchair basketball splits season opening games in Canada

Having a returning All-American on a team certainly helps change the outcome of a game.

That proved true this past weekend for Edinboro’s wheelchair basketball team.

The Fighting Scots split their weekend slate of action north of the border, winning both contests on Saturday and losing their final two on Sunday. The Scots were without 2014-15 All- American Mike Adams in both of their Sunday games.

“Anytime you take an All-American out of the lineup it is going to do some damage,” head coach Jim Glatch said. “Mikey just calms things down. His actions and the way he plays the game just calms everyone down.”

Boro’s Saturday success began with a 70-45 victory against Canada’s national women’s team. Adams led all scorers with 18 points in the contest.

Canada’s U-23 team was up next for the Fighting Scots on Saturday. Boro managed a 50-44 triumph in that contest with Blake Rush logging a double-double and dropping a game- high 20 points to go along with his 10 rebounds. Adams suffered his injury in the first half of the contest.

“The first game allowed us to get some younger players in, especially in the second half. In the second game, we saw the other starters stepping up. What we saw from Blake Rush is where we were trying to get him all of last year,” Glatch commented about Saturday’s action.

Sunday was a different tale for Boro. Without Adams, the U-23 team got the best of Edinboro, 50-31. Ayuba Alli led the Fighting Scots’ offense with 15 points. Canada scored 24 points off of turnovers in the game.

In the season-opening-weekend finale, the women’s team of Canada emerged victorious, 59-51. Rush scored 17 in a losing effort. Also, newcomer Seamus McNally chipped in 10 points.

Glatch noted that turnovers severely hurt his team in Sunday’ slate of action.

Additionally, Glatch said he learned more about his team from the opening games.

“I’m still cautiously optimistic,” Glatch said about his squad. “I saw some really cool things from this team and I also saw an inexperienced team. When we had our other starters step up, that started to spread to the others, but we need our younger players to get in on that as well. The other thing we learned is that this group is upbeat despite the losses.”

Edinboro now returns home hosting the Boro Shootout this weekend in McComb Fieldhouse. Seven teams, including Boro, are set to compete on Saturday and Sunday. There will be two pools. On Saturday, Edinboro is set to play at 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Scots’ Sunday schedule will be determined by their Saturday results. 

Tyler Trumbauer is the Sports Editor for The Spectator. He can be reached at sports.spectator@gmail.com