Wednesday 15 August 2007

Dramatic Comeback Puts Canada in Semi-Finals at FISU Games

Canada finished the game on a 24-5 run to score a dramatic 68-63 victory over Germany in the championship quarter-finals at the FISU men's basketball tournament in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this morning. Down 8 at 50-42 after 3 quarters, Canada allowed the Germans to score 8 of the first 10 points of the final frame and things looked bleak with Canada down 58-44. But Canada scored the next 11 points of the game and later took the lead for good, never looking back to set themselves up for one of two championship semi-final games to be played at 1 AM Eastern time on Thursday morning against the winner of the Lithuania/Russia matchup being played as we write. Canada's big guys had strong games as starters 6'9" Theo Davis and 6'10" Neil MacDonald combined for 24 points, 18 rebounds (7 offensive) and 5 blocks while Germany's touted 6'11" center Yassin Idbihi, a recent graduate of the University of Buffalo (NCAA D1 Mid-American Conference) who had been averaging over 14 points per game during the tournament, was held to only 5 points on 2-12 shooting. Davis led Canada with 14 points, while MacDonald, 6'1" Tristan Blackwood and 6'5" Jevohn Shepherd added 10 apiece. 6'4" Josh Gibson-Bascombe added 9 for Canada (4-1) on 4-4 shooting, 3 rebounds and 2 assists before leaving the game with an injury. His status for the remainder of the tournament is unknown. Slick 6'0" guard Heiko Schaffartzik went 5 for 11 from 3 point land as part of his game-high 21 points for Germany while captain Gordon Geib added 14 and Philip Zwiener had 13 points and 8 rebounds. Canada had its way on the offensive glass, resulting in 21 second-chance points against only 4 for the Germans and also went 16-23 from the free throw line against only 4-10 for Germany, which committed 24 fouls against only 14 for Canada. On the other side of the bracket, Japan outlasted Korea 72-71 and awaits the winner of the Serbia vs. Turkey game in Thursday's other semi-final. The Gold and Bronze medal games go on Saturday with the championship game starting at 1:15 AM Eastern time Saturday morning. We hope to have more on this morning's game later today.

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