Canada tastes victory at 2011 FIBA Americas Championship for Men

Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team came up with its first victory at the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship for Men, narrowly beating the Dominican Republic 73-72 in a wildly entertaining affair on Thursday.

Canadian head coach Leo Rautins was pleased with the win but knows his team can’t relax yet.

“Any win helps, there’s no question about that,” L. Rautins said after the game. “You certainly wouldn’t want to be going into the end praying or looking for one so, certainly it does take some pressure off it but on the flipside you can’t relax, you need every win you can get here.”

This sentiment is something the entire team is buying into, Jevohn Shepherd in particular (Toronto, ON).

“I wouldn’t say the pressure’s off this team because every game’s going to be just as important as the last and then the next game’s more important than the one you just played so you just have to go with the same focus and have the same mindset,” Shepherd said.

Leo’s son, Andy (Syracuse, NY) led Canada (1-1) with 15 points, all coming from behind-the-arc, while Carl English (St. John’s, NL) had 12 points, with eight of them coming in the first quarter alone, and 10 points coming from Shepherd.

On the Dominican Republic’s (2-1) side, Jack Michael Martinez had a game-high 21 points and 16 rebounds with Al Horford also recording a double-double in the loss with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

For the second game in a row, Canada played excellent defence, holding the Dominican Republic to just 33.8 percent shooting, while being much more efficient offensively itself, shooting 42.1 percent from the floor.

The main weapon in Canada’s offensive assault was the 3-point shot as the team managed to shoot an impressive 10-for-23 from the land beyond.

Almost right from the get-go it was clear that Canada was going to have a good night from behind the 3-point line as the team hit five triples in the opening quarter to help build a 19-16 lead at the end of the period.

In the second quarter, the Dominican Republic started out very strong, going on a 10-0 run before Canada managed to battle back and make it 30-30 at the end of the first half because of some very strong play from Shepherd and Kelly Olynyk (Kamloops, BC), who combined to score seven points in the quarter.

When the third quarter rolled around, Olynyk and Shepherd continued their strong play and A. Rautins got in on the act, going 2-of-3 from 3-point territory in the frame, pushing the lead to 51-44 at the end of the quarter.

That lead would be extended in the fourth to as much as 11 points, 65-45, with two minutes remaining but then an 8-2 mini run from the Dominican Republic forced Canada to take a timeout with 40 seconds to play where, afterwards, the lead would slowly be chipped away at because of some missed free throws from Canada.

The match eventually ended up being a case of too little too late for the Dominican with Canada just managing to hit enough free throws to keep the game at a four-point distance, something that proved to be crucial as Francisco Garcia actually hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to make the game 73-72 for Canada.

The Senior Men’s next opponent in the tournament will be Cuba (0-2), a team that lost earlier today to Venezuela (1-2) 106-69.