The Canadian senior men’s basketball team dropped its third straight game at the Tuto Marchand Cup, falling to the Dominican Republic 74-68 on Saturday.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson led the way for the Canadian side with game-high 21 points and 11 rebounds. Eulis Baez led all Dominican scorers with 19 points on an efficient 64 per cent shooting, including a 4-for-6 effort from behind the 3-point line.
Canada was undone by an anemic offence. Canada only shot 33 per cent from the field and only got to the line 11 times, whereas the Dominicans shot a crisp 45 per cent and earned 23 trips to the free-throw line.
A positive for Canada is the 19 offensive rebounds it managed to pull down, an indication of the team’s interior strength, but those extra chances were ultimately squandered.
Both sides were tied at 31 each at halftime, but midway through the third quarter, with the score tied at 41, the Dominican Republic went on a 12-0 run putting the Canadian side on its heels. Canada would respond, however, and close the quarter with six unanswered points of its own cutting the deficit to 53-47.
Canada continued to play catch up all throughout the fourth quarter. A Kyle Landry shot with 2:27 remaining cut the Dominican lead down to just two points, but that was as close as Canada would get as an outside bomb from Baez with 36 seconds remaining and Canada just down 66-63 would prove to be the dagger.
Team Canada gets a day off from the tournament on Sunday but will resume to play what could be its final game of the Tuto Marchand Cup on Monday against Brazil.
