Canada v Jamaica Thrill in Basketball Classic Leave a reply Basketball Canada logoThe Canadian Senior Men’s National Basketball Team was expected to sweep Jamaica in the two-game Jack Donohue International Classic in Toronto this week. The Jamaican’s, however, didn’t go quietly and for much of the game on Saturday night at the old Maple Leaf Gardens building, which currently houses Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre, Jamaica controlled both the pace of the game and the scoreboard. It wasn’t until the final moments that Canada was able to thrill the big crowd that had turned out to watch this exhibition game and pull out the come from behind 77-72 victory. Jamaica had a plan coming into the game and it almost worked according to the team’s Assistant Coach Richard Pollack. The big push by Canada in the 4th quarter wasn’t a surprise. Jamaica Asst coach Richard Polack by MoVernie“We had a game plan,” Pollack said. “And that was to come out here and be even more aggressive than last time. “I couldn’t be surprised about that. We are here; those guys had to make a push. I was expecting it. I thought we had enough to hold them off, but they made a fabulous push towards the end and got some really nice shots up attacking the basket. My hat is off to them. They did a really good job.” Patrick Ewing Jr. started out hot from outside for Jamaica with 11 points on 4-7 shooting and seemed to be able to get anything he wanted as his team went up 26-25 in the 1st quarter. Andrew Nicholson responded for Canada hitting on 4-5 from the field for 9 early points. “(Patrick Ewing Jr.) finally made a shot or two,” Pollack said. “Patrick played a very good basketball game. He was tough from outside, he started outside early. He actually said he was going to get some outside shots up early and then possibly get on the inside. I thought he played a well rounded game, tough on defense. He was in the passing lanes. He was motivational, emotional, he is one of our team leaders.” Cory Joesph by MoVernieThe 2nd quarter was a different story as Jamaica threw in a zone defense that had both Myck Kabongo and Cory Joseph looking confused on offense. A lot of passing with no particular purpose had Canada down double-digits in the 2nd quarter and Jamaica took advantage of turnovers to take control of the game. The confusion for Canada continued into the 3rd quarter with 7 more turnovers and Jamaica was up by 17 points before Head Coach Jay Triano had seen enough and decided to change things up. “We still played tough,” Pollack explained. “We still held our own on the inside. I threw in a couple of things in there. I threw in a man (defense), I threw in a zone (defense) and tried to shake Canada off a little bit and it worked for a while.” “We don’t know when we are going to see a zone again in our training camp, so I was glad they played zone and we struggled against it and then we finally figured it out,” Triano said. “They shot the ball extremely well in the first half and I thought our defense – held them to 33 points (2nd half) and 9 in the 4th quarter – we clamped down in the end when we had to.” The lead was cut to single digits by the time the 4th quarter started. Triano had gone back to Thursday’s hero Brady Heslip and the outside shooting of Andy Rautins to break the zone. After an 18 point performance in the last game, Jamaica wasn’t about to leave Heslip open and the diminutive guard took advantage by finding Rautins open over and over again. Heslip led Canada in assists with 4 in just 12.3 minutes and Rautins hit on 3-5 three-pointers for 11 points in 14.9 minutes. Andy Rautins by MoVernie“Andy (Rautins) is a scorer and we needed points,” Triano said. “We had planned on before this game to not play him in the first half of the game and he and Brady (Heslip) knew that. We needed to take a look at other guys and in the second half, if they stayed zone, we knew that those two guys would get a chance to play. “I don’t mind (playing Rautins and Heslip together). I think it really spreads the floor and if teams play zone, it is really going to open things up inside for Tristan to rebound and flash and Andrew to do things and if they don’t, those two guys (Rautins and Heslip) are very capable of scoring from the perimeter.” Playing these zone-busting guards also opened the floor for center Joel Anthony who had 6 points and 4 rebounds in the 4th quarter. Anthony was the key to shutting down the paint on Jamaica in this game. With the thrill of a big come-from-behind victory, the real purpose of these two games might be lost, but both of these head coaches knew why they were really out there. It is all about getting ready for the regional FIBA tournament later this summer. “We are a work in progress,” Pollack said. “We are going to keep being aggressive. The FIBA Americas tournament is a very aggressive tournament, so we have to be more aggressive.” “It has been great to play games,” Triano said. “We said coming into these games our goal was to be competitive and play against somebody else to see what we could do and also have this be a tryout, so we got everybody in the games. We get a chance to evaluate our players and evaluate where we are.” Triano has a lot to look at after Saturday night. Certain players made a very strong case to remain on the 12 man roster, while others looked like the skill and talent level of this much deeper Team Canada may be either passing them by or requiring them to further develop their skills. After watching Canada play here in Toronto, expectations for the National Team are very high. Team Canada v Team Jamaica Boxscore
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 13:45:24 +0000
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