Undefeated thus far in the tournament, the United States and Japan will take on Australia and Germany, respectively, in the Women's Wheelchair Basketball semifinals on Saturday, September 12.
USA vs. Australia 7:00 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8)
The US went undefeated in their four group A preliminary games, notching wins over Germany, Australia, Great Britain and Brazil.
Following the US' win over China in the quarterfinals on Friday, guard Patty Cisneros said they will fine-tune their offence and defense for the semifinal. "Our motto all year has been 'Play our game,' so that's going to be our focus," Cisneros said.
Australia finished 2-2 in the group A preliminaries with wins over Great Britain and Brazil. They lost to the US and Germany. In Friday's quarterfinal, they beat Canada.
Coach Gerry Hewson said Australia is confident for the semifinal. "We know we will beat them," Hewson said after their quarterfinal win over Canada on Friday.
Germany vs. Japan 9:15 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8)
Losing to only the USA, Germany was second in the group A preliminaries with a record of 3-1. They defeated Australia, Great Britain and Brazil.
Following Germany's win over the Netherlands in the quarterfinal on Friday, center Marina Mohnen said a German win against Japan is "doable." Coach Holger Ingo Glinicki said Germany has a great chance to win "if we don't start as badly as we did today." (Germany scored just six points in the first quarter of their quarterfinal.)
Undefeated in group A preliminaries play, Japan defeated Canada, the Netherlands, China and Mexico. Mari Amimoto led preliminaries in per-game averages for points (22).
Following Japan's win over Great Britain in Friday's quarterfinal, Amimoto said Japan needed to improve their defense.
(BOCOG September 13, 2008)