U-19 Mens World Championship - Canada takes Seventh Place

Group A
Angola
Greece
Lithuania
Puerto Rico

Group B
Iran
USA
Egypt
France

Group C
Australia
Canada
Spain
Syria

Group D
Argentina
New Zealand
Kazakhstan
Croatia

Canada is in a pretty tough group with the Aussies and Spain

They will be tested early in that their first game is against the always tough Australians.

U19 Team scrimaged with the USA today, and lost according to USA Twitter reports. Canada Basketball seem to never have many details. Australia will be tough with lots of future NCAA stars, led by B. Motum 6-9 PF heading to Washington State U. To follow this tournament, I guess we will have to check the FIBA NZ site or USA Basketball site.

Also of note, the Gonzaga board site had the only coverage of the Senior Team in Spain, because of Rob Sacre.

setshot - Canada bball site is woeful... they still don't have (at elast at about 7 this evening) lists or pictures of the three 2009 men's teams currently in action: senior national team currently in spain, the developmental team in serbia and the U-19 team in nzealand. regardless of money problems it still doesn't cost too much to post information. they still have the photo of the 2008 men's squad on the site... use the fiba site for the info on the u-19 tourney... remember that canada doesn't start playing til I think July 5.

Bernie

sorry board - got the dates wrong - Canada plays on July 2 (Aussie), July 3 (Syria) and July 4 (Spain).

Bernie

Remember, NZ is on the other side of the dateline, first game is July 1, Toronto time vs Australia.

The Senior Team is already back Rob Sacre is now in Spokane.

The World Student Games team is only CIS players plus [b]1[/b] NCAA 7'0" center, I guess there are none in CIS! They will get more coverage than they deserve, since the CIS pr rep is with them!

Set - good info... who was playing on the men's nat'l team? and was that roster a final one or just interim?

Bernie

U19 versus Australia is at 17:00 (July 2) is being webcast at "www.fibatv.com" I believe the GTA time is at 01:00 am (July 2), I could be wrong, but by checking the earlier games (USA) later tonight, will be able to confirm the time.

Australia 88 Canada 77, M Arop 27, Gagliardi 11, C Joseph 11, K Olynyk 11, T Thompson 4 - rebounds 42 to 33, and points in the paint 52 to 38, appears to be the difference. Australian leaders were Ellis (St. Louis U) 6-8 F with 25 and Motum (Washington State) 6-9 F with 22 points.

Tough start. Spain will be strong I'm sure!

Syria is a must-win obviously!

All scores from July 2 :

U.S. 106 Iran 55
Croatia 104 Kazakhstan 74
Puerto Rico 80 Lithuania 73
Spain 79 Syria 53
France 102 Egypt 56
Australia 88 Canada (Junior Men's National Team) 77
Greece 101 Angola 58
Argentina 66 New Zealand 64

2009 JUNIOR MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM OFFICIAL ROSTER
# Name Position Height Hometown School / Club (2008/09)
13 Mike Allison Forward 6'9” Lynden, ON NEDA
9 Mangisto Arop Wing 6'6” Edmonton, AB NEDA
8 Jordan Baker Guard 6'8” Edmonton, AB Harry Ainlay Secondary School
6 Murphy Burnatowski Wing 6’7” Waterloo, ON NEDA
15 Rob Dewar Forward 6’10” Guelph, ON NEDA
5 Rob Gagliardi Guard 6’2” Whitby, ON Pickering H.S.
7 Corey Joseph Guard 6'2” Pickering, ON Henderson Findlay College Prep
4 Ty Nurse Guard 6’1” Vancouver, BC NEDA
14 Kelly Olynyk Guard 6’10” Kamloops, BC NEDA
10 Laurent Rivard Guard 6'5” Montreal, QC Northfield Mount Hermon School
11 Tristan Thompson Forward 6’9” Brampton, ON Henderson Findlay College Prep
12 Marc Trasolini Forward 6’8” Vancouver, BC Santa Clara (NCAA)

Junior Men's Team Head Coach: Greg Francis
Assistant Coach: Dave DeAveiro, Pete Guarasci
Athletic Therapist: Minh Nguyen
Team Manager: Dean McCord

CANADA OPENS U19 WORLDS WITH LOSS TO AUSTRALIA
by Tanya Phillipps, basketball.ca
Last Updated: July 02, 2009

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Team Canada faced top ranked Australia in the opening day of the FIBA U19 World Championships in a tough fought game that resulted in an 88-77 loss.

Although the Canadians played a strong second half (43 points to the Australians' 46), the Aussies controlled the first quarter and were too dominant for the red-and-white.

Mangisto Arop (Edmonton) led all players, collecting a double-double with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Cory Joseph (Pickering, Ont.), Rob Gagliardi (Whitby, Ont.) and Kelly Olynyk (Kamloops, B.C.) each contributed 11 points, but Australia’s dynamic duo of forwards Cody Ellis (25 points) and Brock Motum (22 points, eight rebounds) were just too much for Team Canada.

The Australians got off to a quick 17-6 run to start the first quarter, led by 6’7” power forward Ellis. Canada’s Tristan Thompson (Brampton, Ont.) tallied four points by the five-minute mark, but the team got into foul trouble early. With just under three minutes left, Australia was leading 21-12. Canada’s wing Arop scored six and guard Rob Gagliardi added four to bring Canada to within six, ending the quarter 24-18.

At the start of the second, Canada continued to struggle offensively with turnovers, as the Australians led 33-18 with 7:30 remaining. But the red-and-white settled into a rhythm and chipped away at the deficit. With one minute left in the half Canada had pulled to within seven (39-32), thanks to a deuce and a trey by Arop and Gagliardi respectively. Arop led Team Canada on both ends of the court with 12 points and five rebounds in the first half, but the Aussies closed out strongly at 42-34 thanks to top scorer Ellis who collected 13.

Again the Aussies came out fast in the third quarter with the help of forward Brock Motum who amassed four points in three minutes of play. But Canada’s Cory Joseph responded with seven points to make it 53-43 with just over four minutes remaining. Ellis’s dominant shooting helped Australia to a 15-point lead (60-45) with 2:30 left in the quarter. Olynyk, a 6’10” guard, added four points in the period along with Arop’s deuce with 30 seconds left to make it 64-55. Australia answered back with a two to close out the quarter 66-56.

In the fourth period, Ellis continued his shooting show collecting five points. Canada responded with a deuce from Marc Trasolini (Vancouver) and a three-pointer from Gagliardi to make it 71-61, before calling a timeout with 6:30 remaining. At the three-minute mark both teams had 11 points apiece in the period, but Canada was still down by 10, 77-67.

It would take a combination of strong defence and quick points in the paint for the red-and-white to stop the Aussie combination of Ellis and Motum and chip away at the lead. Olynyk added a three and a two followed by Arop’s trey to make it 81-73 with just under two minutes left. Arop added another two and a couple of free throws to bring the game to within seven in the last minute of play but Motum collected a pair of deuces to end the game 88-77.

Defence definitely won this match for the Australians as they collected 42 rebounds to Canada’s 33. And while Canada played competitively for three quarters, the team struggled offensively from the perimeter, shooting only 26 per cent from the three-point line. Couple that with the early fouls in the first quarter and the limited points in the paint (38 to Australia’s 52), and Canada has to make some minor modifications for future matchups in this world class event.

Look to see the team make some adjustments as Canada faces Syria July 3 at 12:30 p.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET July 2). The preliminary round closes out for Canada on July 4 vs. Spain at 5:00 p.m. local time (1 a.m. ET). The top three countries in the pool will advance to the second round.

Visit the tournament website at www.newzealand2009.fiba.com to catch the live stats and complete box scores.


AUSTRALIA TOO STRONG FOR GALLANT CANADIANS

Matthew DELLAVEDOVA (AUS). 1st day of the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship for men, Auckland, New Zealand. 02 July 2009.
AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - An excellent team performance on defence, punctuated by the play of Cody Ellis, has seen Australia overcome a persistent Canadian team at the North Shore Events Centre.

Australia led by double figures midway through each quarter, including 15-2 after less than four minutes of the game, but Canada fought back repeatedly to be within striking distance at each break.

204cm Ellis made the task extremely difficult for Canada in the final term, scoring the first five points of the quarter to establish a 71-58 lead with 7:24 remaining. While Canada would close within eight points with 1:56 remaining, Australia were not seriously threatened, and recorded an 88-77 victory.

Ellis finished with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks, and received good support from forward Brock Motum who scored 22 points on 11/16 shooting and collected 8 rebounds.

Canadian Mangisto Arop led all players with 27 points from an array of impressive one-on-one moves, and 11 rebounds. Captain Kelly Olynk, and guards Cory Joseph and Rob Gagliardi were the other Canadians in double figures with 11 points each.

Australia committed just 11 turnovers for the game and out-rebounded Canada 42-33.

Australia next play Spain at 5:00pm tomorrow at the North Shore Events Centre, while Canada travel to ASB Stadium to play Syria, needing a win to ensure their progress to the second round.

Marty Clarke said :
On the Emus team defence: “The guys really did defend as a unit tonight. That’s something we have been building for a long time. Kids want to play offence, but you have to get them to believe that defending as a group is important.”

On Magnisto Arop: “I thought we did a reasonable job on him, but he made tough shots. It was always going to be a concern, that big, athletic wing player that we didn’t have. But he had a great game, I thought he played really well.”

On their forwards scoring prowess: “I think our guards are really good too, but at the moment, people are really struggling to guard our forwards. So when it’s working you have to go with it.”

Country Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Canada 18 16 22 21 77
Australia 24 18 24 22 88

At the half, it is Canada 37, Syria 31. Poor shooting or good defence? Syria has 16 fouls already with 3 players with 3 fouls already, including their 7'1" centre, compared with 7 fouls for Canada.

Canada outscored Syria 62-22 in the second half alone with very balanced scoring and everyone on the roster getting on the scoresheet.

Final score: Canada 99 Syria 53