THE CANADIAN PRESS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Canada’s luck finally ran out Saturday at the FIBA Americas basketball tournament.
Phoenix Suns guard Leandro Barbosa had 14 of his 22 points in a dominant third quarter to lead Brazil past the Canadians 73-65 in semifinal action. The win moves the Brazilians into Sunday’s gold-medal game against Puerto Rico, which beat Argentina 85-80 in the late semifinal.
Canada will take on the Argentines in the third-place matchup Sunday.
A night after qualifying for next year’s world championships with an 80-76 win over the Dominican Republic, the Canadians couldn’t keep up with a formidable Brazilian team. Canada went into the second half trailing by a single point, but was outscored 26-13 in the third quarter thanks in large part to Barbosa.
Head coach Leo Rautins said the celebrations of a night earlier took their toll on the team.
"I think physically we were okay," said Rautins. "I could just tell by looking at the players that the energy that we need to play with and have played with in the games that we won, it just wasn’t there in this particular game."
The Canadians did make a game of it in the fourth. Trailing 69-50, Canada buried three three-pointers as part of a 12-0 run that cut the lead to six. But with just 25 seconds left in the game, the Canadians were forced to foul — and Marcelo Magalhaes made no mistake, burying all four of his free throws in the final moments to clinch the win.
"I guess in some ways we came down from that high level (Friday) and ended up being a little flat," said Miami Heat centre Montreal native Joel Anthony. "We were able to keep it close in the first half, but in the second half they were really able to pull away."
Anderson Varejao of the Cleveland Cavaliers had 16 points and eight rebounds in the win, while Magalhaes added 15 and Alex Garcia 10.
Anthony led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds for Canada, while Andy Rautins added 12 and Jermaine Bucknor chipped in with 10.
The Canadians shot just 40 per cent (16-for-40) from two-point range compared to 56 per cent (22-for-39) for Brazil. Canada did enjoy a moderate edge at the free-throw line, shooting 75 per cent (15-for-20) compared to 57 per cent (8-for-14) from the Brazilians.
Canada broke out quickly, and took a 17-13 first-quarter lead on an Jermaine Anderson three-pointer. Brazil drew even by the end of the quarter, but the Canadians regained a four-point advantage on Anthony’s jump shot late in the second.
Brazil rallied again, jumping ahead 28-27 on a Varejao free throw just before halftime.
Rautins said the strong first-half showing led him to believe Canada could snag a win.
"We felt it all the way through the first half," said Rautins. "Every timeout, I was telling guys, ‘We gotta find it guys, we gotta dig in, we gotta start pushing harder.’
"Quite honestly, Brazil was the same way. They just had a little stretch in the third quarter where they were just able to find some energy, and that kind of turned the game."
