(Manila) Led by spectacular performances from Dillon Brooks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Canada defeated the United States 127-118 in overtime in the bronze medal game at the Basketball World Cup on Sunday in Manila.
This is the first time that Canada’s men’s team has won a medal at this competition.
Canada achieved the feat thanks to the play of Brooks and Gilgeous-Alexander, who amassed 39 and 31 points, respectively. Brooks notably converted seven shots from the three-point zone, in eight attempts.
Also, the Canadians achieved this feat despite a late fourth quarter that could have deflated them.
There were 4.2 seconds left in the period and Canada led 111-107 when Mikal Bridges was given two free throws for the United States.
After hitting the first, he purposely missed the second, hoping to induce an offensive rebound.
Bridges picked up the loose ball himself, headed to the corner of the court and made his three-point shot with 0.6 seconds left.
Despite the little time remaining on the clock, Canada came close to winning in regulation time on a three-point attempt from Kelly Olynyk who narrowly missed.
However, Gilgeous-Alexander took matters into his own hands during overtime. In less than two minutes of play, he helped Canada build a 118-112 lead by scoring all of his points during this sequence.
The Canadians, who had let two good leads slip away earlier in the match, were able to protect this one.
Jordi Fernandez’s team notably defeated Spain, number one in the world, during the second round. This triumph assured Canada a place at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
In the group stage, Canada also defeated France, another power in international basketball.
In the loss, Anthony Edwards had 24 points, one more than Austin Reaves.
Later Sunday, Serbia, which defeated Canada in the semifinals on Friday, faces Germany for the gold medal.
Unlike their semi-final matchup, Canada started the match with confidence and it took less than 25 seconds, courtesy of Brooks, to score the first two points of the match.
Less than a minute later, Brooks and Montreal’s Luguentz Dort added three-point baskets and Canada already led by eight points.
Dort finished the game with 11 points, eight of which came in that first quarter.
Jordi Fernandez’s squad even held a lead of 13 points with just under two minutes remaining in the first quarter.
But from that moment on, the Americans began to chip away at their lead. They took the lead for the first time, 38-36, when Cameron Johnson hit a shot from the three-point area with 7:46 left in the second period.
From then on, the two clubs traded the lead five times, but Canada were able to retreat to the locker room at half-time with a 58-56 lead, helped by two consecutive Brooks successes from the three-point area.
In that first half, Brooks was by far the most productive player on both teams with 21 points, including five 3-pointers on as many attempts.
On the restart, Brooks picked up where he left off.
He first scored the first two points of the third quarter, before causing a turnover that contributed to a two-point basket from Gilgeous-Alexander, all within the first minute of play of the period.
Gilgeous-Alexander also proved to be Canada’s leader during a productive third quarter at the end of which the Canadian delegation led 91-82.
Canada extended its lead to 94-84 early in the fourth quarter when Olynyk completed a three-point streak. However, two minutes later, USA tied the game with an unanswered 10-point push.
Everything was now ready for the end of the fourth quarter which would be fertile in twists and turns.
