Sunday 12 August 2007

Hot Shooting Koreans Hand Canada First Loss at FISU Games

Korea went 12-28 from three point land and shot 50% overall, hanging on to defeat Canada 82-79 as the second round of the FISU Games men's basketball tournament continued this morning in Thailand. With the loss, Canada needs to defeat Isreal tomorrow (Monday) at 4:45 AM Eastern time to have any chance of advancing out of Group I toward thoughts of a medal. 6'3" Garry Gallimore led Canada with 25 points on 9-15 shooting while 6'4" Josh Gibson-Bascombe added 14 points and 8 boards. As expected, Canada had an edge inside and on the glass as 6'10" Neil MacDonald (13 points, 8 rebounds) and 6'9" Theo Davis (12 points, 13 rebounds) were the main contributors to 20 Canadian offensive rebounds. Three of Canada's top NCAA players, 6'1" Tristan Blackwood, 6'3" Jamie McNeilly and 6'5" Jevohn Shepherd, combined to shoot just 4 for 18, part of Canada's collective 5 for 19 effort from beyond the arc. Canada got into a ten point hole at 31-21 after the first quarter and were down 70-62 after three quarters but were unable to come all the way back.

At the Canadian U17 National championships in Sherbrooke, Quebec, the host Quebec side thrashed Ontario 81-61 in the final game of the day on Saturday as Simon Bibeau broke out for 30 points while Laurent Rivard added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Quebec remains undefeated while Ontario suffers their first loss. In another feature matchup, Alberta took a 7 point halftime lead and went on to an 87-80 victory over British Columbia as Dominyc Coward led the winners with 23 points/8 rebounds while Marc Trasolini led B.C. with 23 points. Later Trasolini had a 31-point, 17-rebound effort leading B.C. to an 82-51 win over Nova Scotia. In other games on Saturday, NWT defeated PEI 81-69, Manitoba defeated Newfoundland 72-58, Alberta thrashed NWT 95-39 and Saskatchewan beat PEI 79-43. The tournament's preliminary rounds end today with the playoff round beginning Monday and the tournament's gold and bronze medal games to go on Tuesday. Note: The tournament is divided into two groups with the top 2 teams from each group advancing to Monday's semi-finals.

Group A Standings: Quebec 3-0; Ontario 2-1; Manitoba 1-2; New Brunswick 1-2; Newfoundland 0-2. TODAY: NFLD vs. NB; Quebec vs. NFLD; Ontario vs. Manitoba. The Ontario vs. Manitoba game at 6 PM ET at Bishop's University will decide who finishes second in Group A and earns the right to play the Group B winner in one of two championship semi-finals on Monday.

Group B Standings: Alberta 4-0; B.C. 3-1; Saskatchewan 3-1; Nova Scotia 1-3; NWT 1-3; PEI 0-4. TODAY: NWT vs. NS; Alberta vs. PEI; BC vs. Saskatchewan; The B.C. vs. Saskatchewan affair at 8:15 ET to be played at Bishop's University will decide who plays Quebec in Monday's championship semi-final.

Probable Semi-Final Matchups:
Quebec vs. winner of today's B.C./Saskatchewan game
Alberta vs. winner of today's Ontario/Manitoba game

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