Canada Defeats Egypt to End World Championships on High Note
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RIGA, LATVIA– The Canadian Junior Men’s National Team (JMNT) was able to finish its time at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men on a high note after it defeated Egypt (1-7) 84-79.
With the win, Canada (3-5) finishes the competition in 11th place.
For the second straight game Dyshawn Pierre (Whitby, Ont.) recorded a double-double for the Canadians scoring a game-high 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting while collecting 13 rebounds, with seven of them being of the offensive variety.
Pierre has had himself an outstanding tournament, emerging as Canada’s most consistent player. He led the team in scoring (16.9 ppg), rebounding (8.2 rpg) and field goal percentage (60.2 percent) and among the tournament leaders in those three statistical categories, he currently sits in the top 10 in each and is actually leading all players in field goal percentage.
Kevin Pangos (Holland Landing, Ont.) was also strong for Canada in the match, going 3-of-6 from behind the 3-point line en route to an 18-point performance.
For Egypt, Assem Ahmed was the high man for his team with 19 points and he was also able to match Pierre’s game-high rebounding total of 13.
As the final score would indicate, the game was evenly contested throughout all 40 minutes of action with Egypt actually leading for most of the first half. However, with a little under three minutes to play in the second quarter with the score being 32-31 for the Egyptians Canada was able to take a 34-32 lead after a Pangos triple and wouldn’t ever surrender it back for the rest of the contest.
In that key second period, Canada’s defence was outstanding, holding Egypt to just 16 points and a total of 10 field goal attempts in the quarter.
This match was not the first time these two sides faced off as they played each other in the second round of the competition. That game also saw Canada come out victorious, albeit in a more lopsided fashion, 91-71.
Even though the JMNT’s tournament is finished, there’s still some basketball left to be played at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men. Most notably the semifinals and finals that you can watch live on http://www.fibatv.com.
PHOTO COURTESY: FIBA
