FIBA AmeriCup men’s qualifier: Canada vs. Dominican Republic

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Canada 88, Dominican Republic 71

Canada dominated the paint and much more Thursday.

Outscoring the Dominican Republic 20-4 with points from inside the paint during the opening quarter, Canada went on to defeat the visitors 88-71 at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon to improve their FIBA AmeriCup Men’s Qualifier record to 3-0.

“It was huge,” Team Canada coach Nate Mitchell said of Canada’s physical presence under the basket.

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“I thought the guys did a really good job of putting pressure on the rim all night.”

It was a paint-by-numbers display among the forwards led by No. 5, Mfiondu Kabengele, who led Canada with 17 points to go along with six rebounds. Quincy Guerrier had 11 points and three rebounds. Kennedy added eight points, seven rebounds and four assists. Rowe chipped in with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.

“Towards our personnel, Thomas Kennedy, and obviously Mfi (Kabengele) did a really good job, and (Jackson) Rowe putting pressure on their paint non-stop,” noted Mitchell. “We knew they had two bigs that very physical themselves. We were able to go at (Luis) Santos a little bit and he got one foul so we ran a play at him right away and got his second foul on the next possession and that really changed the game.

“We came out and played really aggressive defensively. I thought we did a really good job of moving the ball offensively. We were able to follow the game plan and I just thought the guys were really locked in tonight, making sure they can do what they can do offensively and defensively.”

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Captain Trae Bell-Haynes had a game-high nine assists to go along with six points and three rebounds.

“We stuck to our game plan,” said Bell-Haynes, adding that coach Mitchell talked about landing “body blows” and “wearing them down” throughout the course of the game.

That worked.

“They play very good basketball,” Dominican Republic head coach Nestor Garcia said of the Canadians.

“They dominated the game. They dominated all of the game.”

“Like coach says, they play very good basketball,” added Domincan Republic forward Omar Silverio. “They move the ball well and making a lot of plays. We’ve just got to make an adjustment for this next game, but credit to them. They played hard.”

LJ Figueroa led all scorers with 18 points and added five rebounds for the D.R.

Victor Liz added 14 points and five rebounds.

Domincan Republic slipped to 1-2 in the Group C standings.

“It was a great game, a good first game with the whole squad,” said Kabengale.

“We’ve had a good few days. Just coming into the camp, I just felt a togetherness with all the guys in the hotel, bus rides and practice so I was very confident going into the game. Whatever we lack in reps as a team, we made up with togetherness and just kind of camaraderie. I’m glad guys stuck it out, played through mistakes and executed really well on all the sets.”

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Next up for Canada is a Sunday matinee match in Saskatoon against Mexico, who defeated Nicaragua 86-77 Thursday to improve their FIBA AmeriCup Men’s Qualifier record to 2-1.

Game-time is 2 p.m Sunday at SaskTel Centre.

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