Canada Basketball Overcomes New Zealand 78-72, Headed To OQT Final

Against a stubborn New Zealand team that just wouldn’t stay down, Canada Basketball has passed yet another unexpected test and will face France for the right to go to Rio.

This was supposed to be the game where Canada Basketball would finally find their feet. Going up against yet another scrappy team out of New Zealand, that didn’t have nearly the talent that Canada had.

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Yet once again, like Senegal, Canadian fans watched the entire game from start to finish with a nervous eye on the scoreboard, as their team once again struggled from three-point land, thus never really pulling away from the Kiwis.

Once more it would take grit and again it came from an unexpected place down the stretch.

Both Melvin Ejim and Khem Birch were having relatively quiet tournaments for Canada going into this game, but none of that mattered when their country needed them most in this win-or-go-home game.

With Canada up 73-71 with under a minute to go, New Zealand’s Corey Webster had two straight misses that led to a Birch bucket and an Ejim and-one under the basket.

Those baskets put the outcome beyond doubt and enabled Canada to survive by a final score of 78-72.

As mentioned earlier, the three-point shooting was again nowhere to be found (20 percent on the night), although the rebounding was on point as Canada managed to take a 47-42 edge in a category New Zealand had enjoyed precedence over, going into this matchup.

But there was no Steven Adams to match Tristan Thompson on this day, and Thompson finished with 10 boards along with 13 points, while five other Canadians managed at least five rebounds.

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However, nothing was more important than Ejim’s basket with just 23 seconds remaining on the clock, which finally put Canada’s lead out of reach.

Cory Joseph enjoyed a little more freedom then he did against the athletic Senegal, weaving around picks and slashing to the basket for quick layups, alley-oops, and bounce passes in the paint to his big men, finishing with 23 points and four assists.

We are now three games in and the picture of this team may finally be coming into view, as a physical, athletic team that can finish under the rim, struggles from the three-point line and has inconsistent stretches from the charity stripe.

Whether Canada elects to borrow the phrase from their NBA counterparts in Toronto and “pound the rock” against France in the final, is still up for debate.

As stated before, the free-throw line may be a concerning issue in the final. Shooting just over 66 percent, only Turkey is worse, at 59 percentage.

Meanwhile, Brady Heslip has now gone 0-for-8 in the last two games from the three, and will likely continue to keep shooting against France.

How many he will make at this point is anyone’s guess.

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Having Heslip wake up, along with the occasional shooting of CIS alumni Philip Scrubb and Ejim, Canada could very well be headed to Rio over the only team in this tournament that is shooting a worse three-point percentage than them. All of this and more will be found out on Sunday morning.