Canada Basketball – ST. JOHN’S, NFLD (February 24, 2019) – Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team defeated Venezuela 95-55 on Sunday afternoon to finish in first place in Group F as the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers concluded.

Click here for the box score.

Kyle Wiltjer had another stand-out performance as he led the Canadians with 19 points and eight rebounds. Melvin Ejim also had another solid game as he finished with 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and one steal. Phil Scrubb chipped in 14 points, eight assists and five rebounds in the victory.  Yohanner Sifontes led Venezuela with 10 points.  

It was another strong start for the Canadians as they jumped out to a quick 14-3 lead and carried a 24-8 advantage into the second quarter. The Canadians dominated the remainder of the first half and took a 22-point lead, 45-23, into halftime.

There was no slowing down the red and white in the second half. Canada had their highest scoring quarter of the game in the third, scoring 27 points and a took 72-40 lead into the final quarter.  The Canadians capped off their strong offensive performance and handily defeated Venezuela 95-55 to finish the qualifiers with a 10-2 record.

Canada defeated Brazil 94-67 back in December to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.  Canada’s appearance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will be the team’s 14^th at the tournament and the first since the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China (Aug. 31-Sept. 15, 2019) will be the biggest edition of FIBA’s flagship event with a record 32 participating teams playing 92 games over 16 days.

For the first time, the FIBA Basketball World Cup will qualify seven teams directly for the following year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Click here for the roster.

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Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca