Taipei City, Chinese Taipei (Team Canada) – Team Canada’s men’s basketball team captured their third win of the tournament with a convincing 84-71 win over Japan on Thursday night.
The win improves their record to 3-1, while Japan drops to 1-3. Connor Wood (Carelton Ravens) led Canada in points with 19, followed up by Ravens teammate Kaza Kajami-Keane with 16. Japan’s Keisuke Masuda recorded a game-high 25 points in the game.
Canada came out of the gates hot and they were led by Kajami-Keane at the point. His nine points helped the red and white to a 20-11 lead after the first quarter. The Japanese offence picked up in the second as they tried to close the gap, but it was Jordan Jensen-Whyte who stepped up his game and help Canada gain a 13-point lead by halftime.
“We got the result we wanted tonight,” said UBC Thunderbird Jensen-Whyte. “Japan was a great team and they went up and down the floor with us. We were a little bigger than them so we tried to pound the ball inside. We executed our plan tonight, but obviously there are a couple things we need to clean up.”
Team Canada really started to pull away in the third quarter, going up by a high of 20. With everyone on the squad getting ample playing time, the men’s basketball team sailed to an 84-71 win over Japan.
“Finland was a tough one, obviously, but we’re still in this thing,” said Jensen-Whyte. “We have to come out tomorrow and give Germany everything we’ve got. The two wins following the Finland game were huge and we just have to keep building from there.”
The men’s basketball team will finish pool play on Aug. 25 at 3:00 p.m. (3:00 a.m. Eastern) when they face Germany who has gone undefeated thus far at the 29th Summer Universiade. The game will determine which round of classification Team Canada qualifies for.