Canada cruise past China, advance to OQT semis / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Media Credit FIBA Media

Canada (2-0) faced no problems in downing China (0-1) by 109-79 (27-19, 32-27, 20-19, 30-14) and punching the ticket to the semifinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which takes place in Victoria.

Player of the Game EFF 22 Andrew Wiggins Points 20 Accuracy 5-9 Rebounds 4 Assists 2

In the next phase, scheduled for Saturday, July 3, Nick Nurse's men will play the team that takes second place in Group B. China will need to get past Greece on Thursday (19:35 local time, 23:05 GMT) to clinch the second spot that will keep the dream alive for them.With the exception of the second quarter, China was unable to keep its ground and succumbed to a much better team, which shot 43 3-pointers and 40 2-pointers. Moreover, everyone chipped in scoring-wise. RJ Barrett had 16, Andrew Nicholson 14, Dwight Powell 12, Andrew Wiggins 20 in less than 25 minutes of play. On the other end, China's one and only offensive weapon was 23-year-old guard Mingxuan Hu, who went 4 for 7 from behind the arc. Xinjiang Flying Tigers center Qi Zhou had 12 points and 7 rebounds, but his output came mainly in the first half. Zijie Shen added 11 and 8, respectively, but the others were far behind.

As it happened in the QT opener against Greece, Canada looked for high tempo and quick offense, allowing China 26 points in the second quarter and 46 overall in the first half. The hosts were having an excellent shooting night, going 11 for 24 from downtown, while the disparity in the rebounding department was abysmal and had grown even bigger when all was said and done (55-37 for Canada).

The hosts' lead went up to 15 (61-46) at the beginning of the third quarter. China tried to react with Hu leading the pack when Nurse was making extensive rotation, but the Asians' one-dimensional game - with a lot of (missed) 3-pointers - was easy for Canada to handle. RJ Barrett made it 100 for Canada, 4 minutes before the final buzzer, when the winner was already known.

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