2021 Under-19 World Cup Group Stage Review
Daugavpils in Latvia was where Canada began their 2021 FIBA Under-19 World Cup campaign.
The 2017 champions faced stiff opposition in the group stage of the tournament, but their twelve-strong squad packed with talent who were capable and confident of putting in a performance on par with their title run from four years ago.
In the opening game of Group A, Lithuania's height advantage over Canada saw them dominate the scoring in the first quarter, at the end of which Canada put up nine points without reply to go from down by eight to up by one. The slender gap between the teams became an eight-point lead for Lithuania, who kept their advantage alive with accuracy from three-point territory.
Inconsistent shooting from Canada in the third quarter allowed Lithuania to take their biggest lead of the game at fourteen points. Elijah Fisher started to lead a comeback for Canada and shortly after the start of Q4, he tied the scores. Eight lead changes followed, at the end of which Ryan Nembhard put up twelve points in the last three minutes to lift Canada to the comeback win.
The next day they faced Japan, who dropped their first game to Senegal. This game followed a similar pattern to Canada's first, only this time Japan took the early lead that Canada turned around in their favour in the second quarter. This time though, when they had control of the game, they did not let it go.
Canada came out firing in the second half, outscoring Japan 60-42 and left their opponents floundering. Led by Bennedict Mathurin with 30 points and shooting over 50% from the field, the Canadians made it two-for-two with a second blowout win, 100-75.
Finally was Senegal, who opened against Canada by keeping it close with their eye-catching close-range play. The Canadians' response was a 12-1 run which put them in front by double digits at the end of the opening period. Mathurin kept finding scoring chances to make Canada's lead reach twenty points as the game started to get away from Senegal.
Continued consistent scoring in the paint and punishing Senegal for mistakes, Canada ran home to a third consecutive tournament win, final score 85-56. This saw them top Group A with a perfect record, with Lithuania second after a final 95-63 win over Japan. Senegal finished third above Japan, who are yet to win in Latvia.
Moving on to the knockout round of the Under-19 World Cup Canada will face Puerto Rico, who finished in last place of Group B following their final group loss to Iran. A win here would see them advance to face the winner of the Spain and Australia match-up at the top end of the bracket.
Their results so far are encouraging that this Canadian team still have more to do in this tournament, though they have fearsome opposition to come. Check back here for regular updates on their progress and on the official FIBA Under-19 World Cup website.
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