2009 Summer Universiade: Men’s basketball

BELGRADE, Serbia – After winning bronze in 2007, the Canadian development men’s basketball team can finish no better than ninth after a heartbreaking 89-81 loss to Israel Tuesday in their final second-stage game at the Summer Universiade.

Summer Universiade website: www.universiade-belgrade2009.org
Team Canada website: www.universitysport.ca/belgrade

Canada (2-2) needed a win to advance to the quarterfinal, but the Israelis took advantage of Canadian errors to overcome a 12-point deficit in the third quarter to take top spot in Group K. Canada is relegated to the placement side of the tournament and will face Latvia (2-2) Thursday night, with the winner qualifying for the ninth-place duel.

Despite the final score, it was easily the Canadians’ best effort of the tournament as they rebounded from early struggles and a nine-point Israeli lead to go up by a dozen early in the second half.

“In the end, we had a couple breakdowns defensively and we relaxed,” said Chris O’Rourke, the Canadian head coach who was also at the helm two years ago. “We got up by 12 but they kept coming at us and they were finishing, but we weren’t finishing. When we were really good in this game was when we were moving to the rim and attacking and drawing fouls. We had a dry spell where we just didn’t do that, we settled for the jump shots, and we didn’t attack. That was our game plan: we had to attack.”

Second team All-Canadian Ross Bekkering from the University of Calgary had a stellar night in a losing cause for Canada, recording his second consecutive double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Along with the team captain, Toronto’s Josh Gibson-Bascombe of the University of Ottawa, Bekkering is the only returnee from the squad that captured bronze in Bangkok, Thailand.

“We knew what we had to do to advance to the next round,” said Taber, Alta., native Bekkering. “We battled the whole game and had a good effort, but this loss is just really tough to handle. We expected to be in the running for a medal again, and it’s frustrating that we couldn’t get it done.”

Canada’s struggles from the charity stripe against Russia Monday night carried over against Israel. They missed 12 free throws on the night, managing just 52 per cent in the game to bring their tournament total to an anemic 65 per cent.

After giving up their 12-point lead in the third frame, Canada made a game of it despite never regaining the edge on the scoreboard. A 5-0 mini-run for Israel to open the fourth quarter put them up by six, but the Canadians responded immediately to bring it back within two points on a jumper from Gibson-Bascombe.

With 82 seconds on the clock, Malton, Ont. native Philip Nkumrah from Cape Breton University hit a long jump shot to make the score 82-81 in favour of Israel, but those would turn out to be Canada’s last points of the game as Israel converted on its free throws when Canada began to foul.

The tandem of Elishay Kadir and Gal Mekel caused problems for Canada all night, scoring 25 and 20 points, respectively, while both playing more than 35 minutes. Youval Naimy added 17 points for the Israelis.

Canada countered with an 11-point outing from Gibson-Bascombe and 10 from Nkumrah, who also had eight rebounds on the night.

Statistically, the Canadians improved in many categories it had struggled with earlier in the tournament, most notably turnovers, and they out-rebounded their foes by a 46-37 margin.

“That was our best game of the tournament,” said O’Rourke, the University of Guelph head coach. “Israel is an outstanding team, and it was by far the most consistent 40 minutes we’ve played. Unfortunately, it’s a cruel game sometimes. It was right in our grasp to move on, and we didn’t get it done.”

STAT LEADERS
Boxscore: http://results.ub2009.org/results/ENG/BK/BKR173A_BK0400I1100046ENG.htm

ISR 25-20-23-21: 89
CAN 18-30-19-14: 81

Canada
Points: Ross Bekkering (15), Josh Gibson-Bascombe (11), Philip Nkumrah (10)
Rebounds Ross Bekkering (11), Philip Nkumrah (8), Christian Upshaw (5), Dax Desseurault (5)
Assists: Christian Upshaw (3)

Israel
Points: Elishay Kadir (25), Gal Mekel (20), Youval Naimy (17)
Rebounds: Elishay Kadir (9), Gal Mekel (9), Ofir Farhi (6)
Assists: Gal Mekel (5), Nitzan Hanochi (4), Yogev Ohayon (4)

TEAM CANADA SCHEDULE (all times Belgrade time)
2009 Summer Universiade
July 2                Group C: Canada 89, Italy 80
July 4                Group C: Canada 100, China 83
July 6                Phase 2: Russia 89, Canada 77
July 7                Phase 2: Israel 89, Canada 81
July 9                20:00: Consolation: Canada vs. Latvia
July 10              TBD: Consolation

About the Summer Universiade
The Summer Universiade is an international multi-sport event that takes place every two years, and is second only to the Olympic Games in the number of participating athletes and countries. The Universiade is open to competitors between the ages of 17 and 28 in the year of the Games who are full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event.

Story courtesy Canadian Interuniversity Sport