Host tips off world qualifier with win
Canada was the happiest of hosts when the FIBA U18 Americas Championship tipped off with four games Sunday in St. Catharines.
Andrew Nembhard led all scorers with 28 points and A.J. Lawson and Emanuel Miller contributed 18 points apiece as Canada opened group play with a 92-75 victory over Argentina.
Canada returns to the court at 11:30 a.m. with a game against Ecuador, which is hoping to rebound after dropping a 74-62 decision to Chile.
There was local interest as well as national interest when Canada, the second seed at the eightteam tournament, was introduced before the second of four games at Meridian Centre.
While Charles Bediako and older brother Jaden are from Brampton, Ridley College is their home away from home during the school year.
Jaden, 17, admitted feeling some pressure preparing to play for Canada in the days leading up to the tournament.
“Lots of people know me, they want me to perform, so there’s a little pressure there,” the 6foot-11 centre said following a team practice Saturday. “Also, playing for Canada, the U19s came off winning the gold medal, so that’s a little pressure to follow up what they did.”
He didn’t expect pre-tournament butterflies to get in the way
of playing high-calibre basketball once action at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship got underway.
“To be honest, I’m just excited to play,” said Jaden, who came down with two rebounds in the win over Argentina. “I want to go to the finals and win.
“I don’t think it’s pressure really, I just want to play hard and represent my country well.”
Charles felt pretty much the same way. The 6-foot-9 forward’s approach to handling the pressure of playing for Canada — on Canadian soil, in his “second hometown” — was simple: “Just go out there, work hard and play every game as if it were my last.”
He scored four points against Argentina in limited playing time for Canada.
The brothers didn’t expect to be playing on the same team. While Charles knew he would be playing for Canada at the under-17 world championships in Argentina, he thought he would be an alternate, at best, at the qualifier in St. Catharines.
The younger Bediako was at Ridley studying for a final exam when he received a call from head coach Dave Smart telling him to report to training camp at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Jaden was at training camp from opening day. He was among the 17 players, including Ridley teammates Malcolm Bailey, Anthony Daudu and Noah Noah Wharton, invited to training camp in Ottawa.
Making the final 12-man roster was anything but a slam dunk for Jaden.
“It was kind of tough just showing the coach what I could do, and the coach adapting to me,” said the Grade 12 student who intends to return to Ridley in September to begin a post-grad year.
“I kind of new this is my year, this is my chance, but it was kind of hard. There were other guys to beat out, and my brother coming in late. I was fighting for minutes.”
Jaden’s job description from Canada’s coaching staff includes posting up the middle and freeing shooters on his team by drawing defenders to come to him.
Running the floor making “the opponents’ bigs tired” is another one of his duties.
Thanks to Ridley head coach Tarry Upshaw, the brothers had a leg up at training camp. Jaden said “some of the stuff” the players are doing on Team Canada is what the Ridley Tigers have been doing under Upshaw.
Jaden, who will turn 18 in September, played some of the players on the top-seeded U.S. team on the club circuit, and he has either competed alongside or against everyone of the Canadian team.
“I kind of know everyone, and some other guys for other countries, too. I’m picking-and-rolling,” he said. “I think I’m going to be scoring most of my points off picking and rolling, steals in the middle.”
Charles, 16, is competing for Canada on the international stage for the second year in a row. He played on the under-16 cadet team that went to Argentina in 2017.
Two tournaments in a row, after a full season playing high school hoops at Ridley. Isn’t that too much basketball, the 10thgrader was asked.
“Just the same old, nothing I can’t handle, I’ve handled worse,” he said. “Too much basketball? It’s pretty good.”
Last season at Ridley was the first time the brothers played together.
“It was interesting,” Charles recalled. “First few days, kind of shaky, still getting used to how he plays and him getting how I play.
“Over the school year, we have just been getting better at it together.”
Jaden said his younger brother can’t help but take his game to the next level playing up with the under-18 national team.
“I think it will him just playing against me, alongside me, and the older guys in his development, too.”
Training camp wasn’t basketball 24/7. In the hopes of promoting team bonding and giving players a first-hand lesson in dealing with adversity, the team was split into three groups during a visit to an escape room in downtown Ottawa.
“We had to try to find our way out to help us build chemistry through adversity,” the younger Bediako said.