Canada Basketball – NASSAU, BAHAMAS (February 22, 2018) – The Senior Men’s National Team defeated U.S. Virgin Islands 118-89 on Thursday evening to improve to 2-1 in FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers. 

Melvin Ejim (Toronto, ON) led Canada with a game high 28 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks while Brady Heslip (Burlington, ON) added 22 points on 6/13 shooting from beyond the arc.  Anthony Bennett (Toronto, ON) also had 13 points, while Dyshawn Pierre (Whitby, ON) led Canada with six assists in the victory.

Click here for the box score.

After a slow opening quarter, Canada bounced back in the second frame, outscoring the U.S. Virgin Islands 32-21 to enter the break with a 53-48 advantage.  Canada came out firing in the second half, knocking down eight three-pointers in the third en route to a 17-point advantage heading into the fourth.

Click here for the full team roster.                               

QUOTES

“I thought we responded well coming out.  I thought the first three to four minutes of the second half was a real key.  We came out strong, made some shots and got our defence a lot better.” – Gordie Herbert, Head Coach

“We started off kind of sluggish.  They were being really aggressive in the first half.  I think we played better defence in the second half and we were able to get some stops and really open the game up.  They played really hard and got a lot of buckets in transition so we got to work on that.” – Melvin Ejim

UP NEXT

Canada will take on Bahamas this Sunday at 8:00 PM ET to conclude the second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers.

Click here for more information on the Americas Qualifiers and follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.

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For more information, contact: Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca