The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Another dominant performance from Canada left the Bahamas senior men’s national basketball team winless in the first window of the FIBA World Cup 2023 Qualifiers.

Canada took a decisive 113-77 win in the second game of the neutral site back-to-back in Santo Domingo, The Dominican Republic.

David Nesbitt led The Bahamas with 18 points, Travis Munnings had 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Mychel Thompson and Dominick Bridgewater each finished with 12 points.

“Tough to say too much when you lose the game by this many points. With Canada you are playing against EuroLeague players, ex-NBA players so you know you are playing an uphill battle because they are very talented,” Nesbitt said.

“They shot the lights out the gym. We tried to take it to them at a fast pace to wear them down but they did a good job against that.”

Canada led wire to wire and was again efficient from long distance, 21-42 on three pointers while The Bahamas was just 8-30.

“They played two great games, we had a game plan and executed it, we just ran out of gas,” head coach Moses Johnson said.

“We know it would be tough with two days of practice getting guys to try to come in and synergise over such a short period while those guys have been together for some time, but I’m proud of the guys’ effort. They never quit even with adversity, they came here and represented the country well.”

Kyle Wiltjer led six Canadians in double figures with 25 points.

Kassius Robertson scored 15, Phil Scrubb scored 13, Kenny Cherry scored 11 and Thomas Scrubb added 10.

“We knew they were going to come out and play tough after the first game,” Phil Scrubb said.

“They gave us a good run in the first half especially but I think we responded really well with a good team effort.”

Canada took game one 115-73.

Bridgewater led the Bahamas with 13 points, Nesbitt scored 12, Thompson scored 11 and JR Cadot finished with nine.

Group C also includes The Dominican Republic and The US Virgin Islands.

Canada and the DR are 2-0 while The Bahamas and USVI are 0-2.

In the 2nd window, The Bahamas will face The USVI on February 24, 2022, and The Dominican Republic on February 27, 2022.

In the 3rd and final window, The Bahamas will have its second matchup against The USVI on July 1, 2022, and will conclude with the second matchup against Dominican Republic on July 4, 2022.

Sixteen teams will compete in the Americas region, vying for seven spots. The top three teams from each group will qualify for the second round of qualifiers.

In the second round, the 12 teams that qualified will be divided into two groups of six. Subsequently, the three best teams from each group, and the fourth-placed team will qualify to the World Cup.

The FIBA World Cup 2023 will take place August 25 to September 10 in multiple countries for the first time - Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

A total of 80 countries are left vying to be among the 32 teams at the 2023 World Cup. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will qualify teams directly for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games or through 4 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.