In a must-win game versus the Dominican Republic at the FIBA Americas tournament in Caracas, Canada came up short, losing 81-74.
In the opening frame, Andrew Nicholson clearly came out with the intention to play as he scored 10 points in the first seven minutes including the team’s first six points.
The Orlando Magic forward was given a breather and then Canada went out on a 10-1 run to close out the quarter building a 10-point lead.
But as well as they played to finish the first quarter, the Canadian squad played just as poorly to open the second quarter as they watched the Dominicans open with a 10-0 run of their own before Canada woke up and began to battle back.
With Cory Joseph on the bench in foul trouble, they had trouble finding offence until the very end of the period. Canada ended the quarter with a 9-3 run keyed by a pair of 3-point bombs from Brady Heslip to close the gap to 45-44 at the break.
The Dominicans shot a scintillating 63 per cent from the field over the first 20 minutes while hitting 5-9 from long range.
In the second half, the tempo settled into a crawl which clearly favoured the Dominicans as no Canadian outside of Nicholson could seem to find their rhythm.
“We weren’t very good with the ball. That’s what happens with a young team,” Canadian coach Jay Triano said while noting the fact that his charges turned the ball over 16 times.
The two sides traded punches until midway through the fourth quarter when Houston Rockets forward Francisco Garcia took over for the Dominicans.
With 4:25 remaining on the clock and the Dominicans holding a one-point advantage, Garcia scored nine straight points for his side over the next three minutes, pushing the advantage to 76-70 and Canada could never recover.
“We knew they were good off the dribble. We had to contain their guys and we didn’t,” Triano said.
The Canadians wasted a 29-point performance from Nicholson. Aside from Tristan Thompson (14 points), Brady Heslip (12 points) and Joseph (13 points), the rest of the team combined for total of six points.
Canada’s record falls to 3-3 at the tournament while the Dominicans improve to 4-2.
Canada will play its final game of the second round of the tournament Sunday when they take on Argentina. They will now need to win that game and get some help from other teams to finish in the top four, and advance to next year’s World Cup in Spain. The game can be seen live on Sportsnet 360 beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET.
