Basketball: Canada’s AmeriCup visit will be short after loss to host Argentina
Canada’s stay at the AmeriCup continental men’s basketball championship will be short and not so sweet.
Despite performing far better than they had on their opening night at the 12-team tournament, Canada’s 92-86 loss to host Argentina on Monday means the senior men’s team will have a summer season of precisely three games prior to World Cup qualification games in the fall.
Argentina’s Facundo Campazzo, a 26-year-old national team veteran who plays for EuroLeague Real Madrid in the winter season, hit an improbable fadeway three-pointer with about 10 seconds left to give Argentina a four-point lead and then sealed the game with a layup at the buzzer for the hosts.
Canada, 0-2 after losing to Argentina and U.S. Virgin Islands, now has no chance to advance past the first round of the glorified exhibition tournament. Canada will play Venezuela on Tuesday night before this version of the team disbands and the focus becomes a World Cup qualifying game against Bahamas in Halifax in November.
Not advancing to the weekend semifinals robs Canada of two more games that would be beneficial to the handful of players who’ll be on the November team, a goal for the squad before the tournament began.
But two players appearing in their biggest tournaments with the senior team — Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Olivier Hanlan — had big games on Monday, scoring 17 and 16 points respectively as Canada was led by its backcourt play.
Brady Heslip led Canada with 24 points but Canada once again struggled from three-point range, making just seven of 23 attempts.
Canada also got 12 points and 18 rebounds from Andrew Nicholson.
Former Raptor Luis Scola played just about 90 seconds to start the second half for Argentina before leaving the game with an apparent injury.