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France tops Canada, gets last Olympic basketball berth
Posted On Jul 11 2016
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Canada’s men’s basketball team will not be playing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio after another do-or-die qualification loss, the second in consecutive summers.
For France, Parker led all scorers with 26 points and hit the dagger three that put the game out of reach for Canada.
France were led by guard Thomas Heurtel with 17 points on 7/11 shooting, guard Nando de Colo’s 13 and Denver Nuggets power forward Joffrey Lauvergne’s 11 points and five rebounds. Cory Joseph, of the Toronto Raptors, scored 20 for Canada and Melvin Ejim had 19.
For the second consecutive year, Canada was one victory from qualifying for the Olympics and for the second consecutive year, Canada came up short, losing to France 83-74 in a qualifying tournament in the Philippines on Sunday.
Group B consists of Argentina, Spain, who won the silver medal at London 2012, Brazil, Lithuania, Croatia and Nigeria.
The U.S., Serbia and France were the three medalists in the Basketball World Cup in 2014.
Boris Diaw, recently acquired by the Jazz in a trade with San Antonio, posted nine points, four assists and two rebounds in 36 minutes of the title game.
Canada held a 35-26 rebounding edge over France, and also shot 51 per cent from the field, to France’s 49.
France will have less than a month off before heading to Rio for the 2016 Olympic games, where it will be Parker’s last Olympics with the French National team.
“Being the youngest team here is a good growing experience for us”, head coach Jay Triano said.
Having Heslip wake up, along with the occasional shooting of CIS alumni Philip Scrubb and Ejim, Canada could very well be headed to Rio over the only team in this tournament that is shooting a worse three point percentage than Canada.
In another gritty defensive effort that made up for some shoddy offence, Canada beat New Zealand 78-72 Saturday morning in Manila to set up a one-game shot for the Games. “But we believed in ourselves, in our defensive and offensive qualities and I think in the end we showed it. It was a team win”.
