FRA/CAN – Canada fall at the final hurdle

IZMIR (FIBA World Championship) – Canada has once again given up a fourth quarter lead to suffer their third consecutive defeat, falling out of contention for the FIBA World Championship after their 68-63 loss to France.
 
Free throws proved the difference in the final period, where neither France nor Canada could create open shots. Canada hit 7/10 for the term compared to France’s 8/8, with the North Americans hitting just 3/6 in the final five minutes.
 
While Canada’s effort was tremendous, pulling in four offensive rebounds in the final term, they could not hit the open shots those boards created.
 
For France, Nicolas Batum (24 points, 7 rebounds) was superb, making big shots throughout the game, including 17 points in the second half. Canada’s Levon Kendall – who missed two wide open three pointers to tie the game deep in the fourth - finished with 15 points, while Kelly Olynyk made a sparkling FIBA World Championship debut with 13 points on 4/5 shooting.
 
Canada started strongly, with Kendall scoring five quick points to set up an 8-3 lead. In a physical struggle, the Road Warriors held that lead until a 6-2 France run in the final minute tied the scores at 15-15 at quarter time.
 
The arm wrestle continued in the second term, with Canada pushing the ball but struggling to break the French transition defence, while France had no answer for the tough interior defence of Joel Anthony and Kendall. A 28-28 deadlock at half time was the result.
 
France threatened to slip away in the third term when they led by four, but Kendall and Olynyk – Canada’s captain at last year’s FIBA U19 World Championship – strung together important buckets to give their country a 48-46 three quarter time lead.
 
France play Lithuania Wednesday night in a game that could decide first place in Group D. Canada faces New Zealand but in reality have little more to play for than pride.

Quotes:
 
Collet (France, coach): What was great was that we had the courage to stay in the game. We held them to seven points in the last quarter, only a couple of drives by Brown and rebounds by Anthony allowed them to score. That’s why we won the game, and Nico (Batum) had a great game.

Leo Rautins (Canada, coach): I thought most of the game we did a decent job of doing what we were trying to do. Occasionally they found a couple of holes, as good teams do.
 
FIBA

Paulo Kennedy

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