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Canada finishes 1-2 in the tournament

Hot Shooting Brazilians prove too much for Canada

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Brazil shot 57 per cent from the field, including 50 per cent from behind the three-point arc, to beat Canada 87-69 on Thursday at the Tuto Marchand Cup.

Brazil won the tournament, a warmup for the FIBA Americas Championship which begins Aug. 26 in San Juan, with a 3-0 record. Canada finished at 1-2.

Leandro Barbosa led Brazil with 27 points, shooting 10-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-5 three-pointers. Tiego Splitter had 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting.

Carl English had the hot hand for the Canadians, scoring 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting (2-of-4 threes). Joel Anthony had 14 points, shooting 6-of-8 from the floor.

"Brazil is a great team," English said. "They get out well on the fastbreak and play so well together, with their core of players having played together for so many years.

"We struggled with our transition defence tonight and any time you give up nearly 60 per cent shooting it will be tough to win. The important thing is we still feel like we are getting better each day and that next week we can put it all together at the FIBA Americas Championship."

Canada kept it close in the first quarter, trailing by only four, 19-15, at the end of the period. But the Senior Men could manage just 11 points in the second quarter and faced a 10-point deficit, 36-26, at the half. The two teams played evenly through the third but Brazil put the game away with a 26-point final quarter.

The defensive lapses worry Senior Men's head coach Leo Rautins.

"We played poorly defensively tonight, which was disappointing after a good effort last night against Puerto Rico." Rautins said. "We are a team that can't afford to play without energy and tonight we didn't bring the same energy we did last night.

"We begin our final week of practice now and we need to focus on playing the same way every time we step on the floor."