{"id":321955,"date":"2025-12-02T04:05:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/321955\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T04:05:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:05:20","slug":"canada-hold-off-bahamas-to-stay-atop-group-b-fiba-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/321955\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada hold off Bahamas to stay atop Group B\u00a0|\u00a0FIBA Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

COURTSIDE 1891<\/p>\n

Stream the action live and on-demand<\/p>\n

Watch here<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TORONTO (Canada) \u2013 Canada notched another win on their journey back to the FIBA World Cup as it defeated Bahamas in a 94-88<\/a> nail-biter on Monday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.<\/p>\n

Thomas Scrubb showed up in his usual fashion as he was already in double-digit scoring by the half, while Charles Bediako was a big presence in the paint and Trae Bell-Haynes ran the point. Domnick Bridgewater and Isaiah Mobley held down the first half for Bahamas, scoring half of the team\u2019s total points through two quarters. They couldn\u2019t stop Canada\u2019s rotation as their bench had 28 points to Bahamas\u2019 three at the half.<\/p>\n

Bahamas stayed hungry as they opened the second half on a 7-0 run to cut Canada\u2019s lead down to single digits, trailing by just seven after efforts by Bridgewater, Mobley and Jaraun Burrows. However, another top showing from Thomas Kennedy and Kyle Wiltjer restored Canada’s lead to 11. Garvin Clarke and Samuel Hunter stepped up for Bahamas to aid in the scoring, but for every basket Bahamas scored to keep up \u2014 even from deep \u2014 Canada stayed ahead as Trae Bell-Haynes hit back-to-back threes.<\/p>\n

A massive comeback in the back half of the game – Bahamas scored 52 points and finished on 52 percent shooting – made the game a nail-biter as Clarke, Bridgewater, Davis, Mobley and Burrows all tallied at least 12 points for their country, but Canada\u2019s points in the paint and bench kept them fighting until the end.<\/p>\n

Turning point<\/p>\n

Despite trailing by double digits at multiple points, with just under three minutes to play Bahamas had cut the lead to just 3 points, Canada was forced to take a timeout. Coming out of that, Aaron Best hit a triple that put Canada back up by 6, though Bahamas came back with two quick baskets to make it a 2-point affair. Marcus Carr hit both of his free throws with 1:09 on the clock, increasing the lead back to 4, and Bell-Haynes did the same with 14 to play.<\/p>\n

Bahamas was forced to take a timeout of its own back down by six points, and a missed basket resulted in Canada getting possession back and running out the clock to secure victory.<\/p>\n

Player of the game<\/p>\n

Scrubb came off the bench to be a scoring presence for Canada, shooting 75 percent from the floor as he tallied 16 points along with 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Wiltjer was another player to watch as his 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals were key for Canada to stay in front.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kyle Wiltjer<\/p>\n

Bell-Haynes also kept Canada afloat during the third quarter as Bahamas kept attacking offensively, responding back with deep triples of his own to maintain the lead. His team-high 17 points included 12 of those made from the three-point line.<\/p>\n

Stats don\u2019t lie<\/p>\n

Canada was able to get an advantage on second chance points as the team outmuscled Bahamas under the basket for a 16-9 advantage, even with both teams having size down low as they each tallied over 40 points in the paint. Canada was also able to get a slight advantage at the free throw line as they shot 72.2 percent from the stripe compared to 66.7 percent for the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/p>\n

While Bahamas had a major second half, able to force 24 points off turnovers and net 17 points on the fast break against Canada, the team was unable to stop Canada offensively as they shot 51 percent from the floor, including 64.9 percent from 2-point range, and used their size to get a slight advantage on the boards, 39 to 27.<\/p>\n

Both teams had size, grit and fought until the final whistle, but ultimately Canada\u2019s cushion from the second quarter was able to help them when Bahamas came knocking in the back half of action. Canada\u2019s bench was also a major contributor to its success, scoring over 50 points for Canada, compared to Bahamas having just seven points from the bench.<\/p>\n

They said\"\"<\/p>\n

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FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COURTSIDE 1891 Stream the action live and on-demand Watch here TORONTO (Canada) \u2013 Canada notched another win on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-321955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}