Post-game recap: Canada vs. Chile, November 29, 2010
The first round of the Americas Championships has now been completed, and Canada finished on a strong note, with a solid 87-74 win against Chile. This means that we have secured a 6-0 record, 1st place in Pool C, and a ticket to Pool D. The top 2 teams in Pool D will make the playoff round, the 3rd place team will earn a place in the repechage, and 4-6 go straight to the consolation tournament. Of the teams that make the playoff round, the two semi-final game winners will qualify directly to the world championships, and the two sem-final losers will join the 3rd place teams in the second chance qualifiers (repechage).
The game against Chile started out well for us, and Philip Yates went 3-3 as part of a 10-2 start. Before long, our lead had been stretched out to 19-6, and we never looked back. We had the lead up to 48-28 by the half, and 69-47 by the end of the third quarter, before clearing the bench for the 4th.
Looking at the individual perfomances, everyone played good defense, and no single Chilean player really went off for a huge game. On offense, we got some numbers out of Yates and Dupre, but our bigs did most of the scoring. Jaiswal, Clear, Demers, and Richards all put up ratings of either 14.0 or 14.5, all scored 11 to 17 points, all shot very close to 50%, and all contributed to a strong rebounding performance (although Richards only was credited with 5 rebounds individually). It's hard to single anyone out for player of the game honours, but Jaiswal and Clear probably put up the best numbers. I think I'll give them both a co-player of the game nod, which keeps them tied for the lead in the random player of the game standings (3.5 nods each ).
Our schedule for round two gets very difficult in a hurry. We play the United States next week (2nd place pool B), then tournaments hosts Argentina the following week (who were 1st place in pool A). After that, we get Ecuador (3rd B), Paraguay (4th A), and finish up the round with Costa Rica (4th C).
Last edited by The Mogul at 11/30/2010 12:17:58 AM