CIS Hoops.ca

Canada looks to continue their quest for the Gold medal at the 2007 FISU Games men's basketball tournament early Wednesday morning as they take on Germany in one of 4 championship round quarter-finals. The game gets unway at 1 AM Eastern time (Noon Thailand time) on Wednesday. Follow the game by clicking here , then going to "Basketball, August 15th" in the grid and then going to "Available Information" and then "Results". Games are updated as scoring occurs.

Germany (3-1) won both of their preliminary round games (76-67 vs. Greece & 89-49 vs. Kazakhstan) and then clinched a spot in the quarter-finals with a tight, 79-77 victory over the Ukraine before losing 75-67 to undefeated Japan yesterday. Germany has at least 4 players up front who can score, led by 6'10" 275 pound Yassin Idbihi (pictured - 14.3 ppg at FISU Games), who just completed his senior season at the University of Buffalo during which he averaged 15.8 ppg and 9.3 rpg (lead the Mid-America Conference) in 31.6 mpg, earning honourable mention All-MAC status. Idbihi, born in Morocco but schooled in Germany, has signed with RheinEnergie of the German First Division for next season. Probably Germany's best wing player is 6'4" Jan Lipke (12 ppg/66% 3's at FISU Games), who is projected as a German National team player in the near future and plays for Bremerhaven in the German First Division. 6'0" PG Heiko Schaffartzik (11 ppg/3.3 rpg/2.0 apg at FISU Games) was recognized as Germany's top player on the Junior National team and he will play for Oldenburg of the German First Division. Other top players include 6'8" Moritz Wohlers (7.3 ppg), who completed his NCAA career at Montana State-Billings (Division 2) in 2005-06, averaging 19 points & 8 rebounds per game and 6'8" Jermain Raffington (7.3 ppg), who spent two seasons at Southeastern CC, averaging 10.6 ppg/6.1 rpg and recently was released from a National Letter of Intent to attend Butler University, deciding to return home to Germany to play pro. Another big, 6'11" Dirk Madrich (7.7 ppg), will play for Strasbourg in the French Pro league this coming season. Canada's bigs will be put to the test on the glass as Germany has ordinarily outrebounded their opponents in the tournament thus far. But Canada has received production from virtually their entire roster and hopefully the depth and athleticism will take its toll on the Germans. Good luck to the team on Wednesday.