Canada improves to 2-0 in men's basketball after beating Australia

LILLE, France — Resilience and a bounceback second-half effort drove Canada's men's basketball team to a huge win on Tuesday.

RJ Barrett had a game-high 24 points as Canada improved to 2-0 in group play at the Paris Olympics with a 93-83 victory over Australia.

After a first half that saw Canada get outscored 30-16 in the paint, the Canadians turned things around.

"Just the resiliency and how relentless this group is," Canada head coach Jordi Fernandez said. "The way they fought in that second half, we were not playing great defensively in the first half … I think we came back with a purpose in the third quarter.

"We did a great job, 22 deflections in the second half, only 16 points in the paint allowed and that ignited our offence. The way we can run the floor, we scored a lot out of their turnovers."

Barrett added seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.

The victory, combined with wins by France and Germany on Tuesday, guarantees Canada a spot in next week's quarterfinals.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks added 16 points each. Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort each had three steals for Canada, which scored 28 points off of 18 Australian turnovers, with 15 of those points coming in the third quarter alone.

"Starts with the defence, starts with the ball," Fernandez said. "Once again, Lu Dort was amazing, Dillon was amazing. I think Khem Birch gave us great minutes, Dwight (Powell) with nine rebounds.

"Great team effort. It wasn't perfect but for game two, we're still growing and we're about to face one of the best programs in the world."

The seventh-ranked Canadians next face second-ranked Spain (1-1) on Friday. Canada defeated Spain to advance into the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals and qualify for the Paris Games last summer.

Josh Giddey led Australia (1-1) with 19 points, 18 of which came in the first half.

"You saw the first half, the formula of moving the ball and making them defend movement as opposed to on-ball (defence) and the concern coming into the game was their pressure and how we handled their pressure," Australia head coach Brian Goorjian said.

"The aspect to it that you don't take into account once you get into it is the fatigue factor. Even though we have depth in those spots, I just thought they wore us down physically and we really had trouble getting into anything in the second half."

After making a stepback mid-range jumper for Canada's first basket, Gilgeous-Alexander made his way to the bench after picking up a quick second foul just 1:44 into the game.

However, Canada held its own in a back-and-forth opening frame that saw six lead changes and four ties with Australia ahead 28-26 by its conclusion.

After Giddey opened the second quarter with a three, Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort led Canada on a 7-0 run to take the lead 2:30 into the frame.

Australia didn't let Canada get too far, though, as a Giddey floater with seven seconds left gave the Aussies a 49-45 edge going into halftime. The world No. 5 used consistent movement to facilitate their scoring advantage in the paint.

Canada went on a 17-5 run in the third quarter to take a 66-56 lead, capped by a pair of Barrett free throws with 3:58 remaining.

Australia returned fire, though, with a 6-0 run capped by a questionable missed call for offensive interference made it a four-point game with 2:59 left in the quarter. An Australian player appeared to touch the ball as it was in the hoop but Canada's challenge was rejected.

Canada held a 72-70 lead after three quarters.

Barrett hit a corner three to make it a 9-2 Canada run with 5:09 remaining that prompted an Australia timeout in the fourth quarter. Jamal Murray followed with a layup almost a minute later to give Canada its largest lead, 83-72.

Canada led by at least seven points the rest of the way, with Brooks capping the scoring with a three-pointer with three seconds left.

"We got stops, we got rebounds — and consecutive stops," Brooks said of his team's second-half showing. "That's the key in this game, you get consecutive stops and you're able to score, that's when you make a run.

"And then, they're hitting every shot in the first half, they were hot, they were playing together, confident. We stayed poised, stayed together, made a couple adjustments and we went on our run."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2024.