Group Stage Success for Canada in Americas Under-16s

Two different Canadaian national teams headed to two different Mexican cities for the men's and women's Under-16 Americas Championship, being played at the same time in Xalapa and Guanajuato respectively.

Each tournament consisted of eight teams playing in groups of four, followed by two knockout games and ending with the final. The men's team had the seemingly harder group, with Canada facing the two South American titans Argentina and Brazil as well as host nation Mexico. Meanwhile in Guanajuato, the women's team also had Brazil and Mexico as well as Costa Rica to contend with in their group.

In the men's opener against Argentina, no sooner had the Canadian team reached their biggest lead did the game start to fall away from them. Argentina, who had proved hard to break away from throughout the game, put up ten unanswered points and surged into the lead late on, picking up plenty of points from beyond the arc they maintained their grip and ran home winners 81 to 70.

Mikkel Tyne finished with a game-high 22 points, but there was plenty of room for improvement for Canada, which they found on day two bouncing back against Mexico. After a stilted start, fifteen points unanswered began a continued upward trajectory for the Canadians, whose superior defence held the Mexicans to just a handful of chances per quarter, though Charles Georgelos managed a double-double in just twenty-four minutes played.

Tyne and Efeosa Oliogu shared top scoring honours with 15 points each as Canada got their first win against the hosts 85 points to 49, forty Canadian points coming off the bench. They finished the group stage against Brazil and started off leading by a slender margin before building a double-digit advantage and never looking back. Sinking nine three-pointers and shooting over fifty percent in the paint kept Canada comfortably in front from beginning to end while Brazil could not find any real consistency on offence.

Led by a game-high 19 points by Ishan Sharma, Canada finished 92-53 over Brazil and finished in second place in the group after Argentina went undefeated in their two fixtures following the opener to Canada. Brazil finished third with Mexico in last place.

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Elsewhere in Mexico, Brazil were the first opponents for the women's team. After going on a 10-0 run midway through the first quarter, Canada went on to lead Brazil by twenty points and their continued dominance in the paint kept them comfortably in front as the Brazilians could not keep up following this early set back. They started the tournament strong with the 82-65 win, with Cassandra Prosper finishing with 24 points and nine rebounds in the game.

After impressing against Brazil, Canada went on to dominate Costa Rica. The central americans were helpless and went more than ten minutes of regulation without scoring. Every Canadian made the score sheet and five reached double digits by the end of the game where the final score was 112-25 to Canada, who made 70 points in the paint against the Costa Ricans.

In their final group game Puerto Rico put up more of a fight, but not by much. Holding their opponents to single digits scoring in two periods of play, the Canadians dominated in the low post and dropped eleven three pointers and were relentless in contesting the ball, finishing with 73 total rebounds as a team. Delaney Gibb was the standout performer with 23 points and 11 rebounds, with five more for Canada in double digits as they finished their group undefeated with the 102-50 win over Puerto Rico.

So far so straight froward for both teams but the competition now starts to heat up as it enters the knockout phase.

The second-place men's team have set up a quarter final match-up with Puerto Rico where a win would see them reach the semi finals and either a rematch with Mexico or a meeting with perennial rivals the USA. The women's team quarter final will see them take on winless Chile, a win there would see them advance to play either Argentina or Brazi for a place in the final.

Check back here for updates on the progress of both teams and for more, follow this link to the men's tournament's official website and this to the one for the women.