Canada Progress at the Under-17 World Cup: Report

Canada rolled in to the 2022 Under-17 World Cup in Spain knowing it would be a challenging tournament from the outset, facing nations of strong basketball stock from the outset. This is the first edition of the Under-17 World Cup for four years and the dozen-strong outfit were looking to return in style after finishing fourth in 2018.

After an uncertain start against New Zealand, Canada finally found their scoring rhythm with twelve points unanswered at the end of Q1 and into Q2, where they outscored NZ 22-8 and continued on an upward trajectory.

The team were unstoppable in the low post with 70 points in the paint, led by Ishan Sharma with 16 points. They also saw good bench production, Christian Nitu and Stephen Osei combining for 27 points off the bench, while Olivier Rioux took charge of team defence, grabbing ten total rebounds. All these contributions lifted Canada to one of the biggest wins of day one, 94-46 over New Zealand.

The next day they faced France, who opened with ten unanswered and held the Canadian to nine points in the opening quarter. Already Canada were left with a lot to make up despite the best efforts of Osezojie Okojie, leading the team with fifteen points, they underperformed in this game, scoring just over a quarter of all shot attempts.

The French had far greater success both on offence and shutting out Canada on defence, with four of their players finishing in double digits in a big setback for Canada after their opening win. At the final buzzer they had been roundly beaten 87-55 by France.

Their final group game against Serbia saw a similar pattern: Canada gave up seventeen points without reply early on; the Serbians maintained their advantage for the game's remainder, leading by double digits to the final buzzer. Led by Filip Jovic, who had 20 points and 9 rebounds, Serbia kept up their momentum from close range throughout the game, never giving Canada a chance to come back.

Four Canadian players finished with ten points in what was otherwise a disappointing end to the group stage, losing to Serbia by nineteen. With only one win Canada finish third in the group ahead of winless New Zealand; perfect France topped the section ahead of Serbia in second place. Results elsewhere mean Canada will face hosts Spain in the knockout round.

The team's progress in the knockout round will follow here, while more can be found about this year's 2022 FIBA Under-17 World Cup can be found over on the official website.