Canada has never medaled at the Basketball World Cup. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander evidently has his sights on changing that, and his team sent a serious message on the opening night of the tournament.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27 points and Canada topped France 95-65 in a Group H game at Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday night. It cap Day 1 of the World Cup that’s also being held in the Philippines and Japan. Canada outscored France 25-8 in the third quarter, turning what was a three-point game at the half into a runaway.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 13 points in that third quarter, and also finished with 13 rebounds and six assists. Kelly Olynyk scored 18 points for Canada.
Evan Fournier scoring 19 of his 21 points in the first half for France, which had won all three of its previous World Cup contests against Canada.
MONTENEGRO 91, MEXICO 71: Nikola Vucevic finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds in just 31 minutes, and Montenegro pulled away for a win over Mexico in Group D.
People are also reading…
Vucevic was 11 for 15 from the field, including 3 for 3 on 3-pointers. Kendrick Perry scored 16 points and Nikola Ivanovic added 14 for Montenegro.
Pako Cruz scored 16 for Mexico, while Joshua Ibarra scored 13, Fabian James had 12 and Paul Stoll finished with 10 points and seven assists.
LITHUANIA 93, EGYPT 67: Margiris Normantas scored 18 points in 18 minutes and Lithuania easily won its opener.
Jonas Valanciunas had 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Elmantas Bendzius scored 10 for a Lithuania team that outrebounded Egypt 53-34.
Assem Marel scored 14 for Egypt, while Amr El Gendy had 13, Anas Mahmoud added 11 and Ehab Amin finished with 10.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 87, PHILIPPINES 81: Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 10 rebounds and the Dominican Republic prevailed on a night where fans in the Philippines set a World Cup attendance record.
A total of 38,115 fans came to the game, breaking the record of 32,616 set at the gold-medal game of the 1994 world championship in Toronto when the U.S. rolled past Russia for the title.
Jordan Clarkson led the Philippines with 28 points. June Mar Fajardo added 16.
ITALY 81, ANGOLA 67: Simone Fontecchio scored 19 points and Italy pulled away in the final 12 minutes to hold off upstart Angola.
Stefano Tonut scored 18 points for Italy, Giampaolo Ricci scored 12 and Marco Spissu added seven assists.
Childe Dundao scored 19 points for Angola, which led by seven early and was still tied with Italy at 52-all late in the third.
Australia forward Xavier Cooks (9) goes up for a shot against Finland forward Elias Valtonen (19) during the second half of their Basketball World Cup group E match in Okinawa, southern Japan, on Friday.
AUSTRALIA 98, FINLAND 72: Patty Mills scored 25 points and Olympic bronze medalist Australia overwhelmed Finland over the final 23 minutes.
Josh Giddey flirted with a triple-double — finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists — for the winners, who got 13 from Joe Ingles and 10 from Dante Exum.
Lauri Markkanen, the reigning NBA’s Most Improved Player, led Finland with 19 points and eight rebounds.
GERMANY 81, JAPAN 63: Moritz Wagner scored 25 points and added nine rebounds as Germany pulled away from the start and was up 53-31 at the half.
Dennis Schroder added 14 points and Daniel Theis had 13 for the winners. Moritz Wagner’s brother, Franz Wagner, had 10 points.
Yuta Watanabe topped Japan with 20 points.
LATVIA 109, LEBANON 70: Dairis Bertans scored 20 points, going 6 for 7 on 3-pointers, and Latvia turned its first World Cup game into an easy win.
Rolands Smits had 17 points for Latvia, which had a 10-point lead midway through the first quarter and kept pulling away.
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Davis Bertans, the only current NBA player for either team, scored 10 points off the bench.
