Toronto (Canada), Jun 29 (EFE) .- The Canadian team beat Greece 97-91 and Uruguay lost to Turkey 95-86 on the first day of the pre-Olympic men’s basketball tournament that began to be played this Tuesday in the Canadian city of Victoria and in which six countries participate.
Canada, whose coach is Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse, had to come back in the second half of the game to claim victory. At halftime, the Greek team was four points ahead, 46-50.
But in the second half, the home team was able to turn the score around thanks to the performance of Andrew Wiggins, the point guard of the Golden State Warriors, who finished the game with 23 points (3 of 6 triples attempted), 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal.
His teammate, the wing-guard RJ Barrett, who plays for the New York Knicks, also had a good game with 22 points (1 of 6 triples), 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
In the Greek team, the top scorer was the power forward for Olimpia Milano of Italy Konstantinos Mitoglou, who had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds, in addition to 3 steals and 1 block.
In the match between Turkey and Uruguay, the Turks began dominating from the first quarter and at halftime, the Turks were already 6 points up, 43-37.
But in the third quarter, the Uruguayans reacted by scoring 26 points against Turkey’s 18, leaving the score at 61-63.
At the beginning of the last quarter, the Uruguayan team was 8 points ahead, 64-72, but with 4 minutes remaining in the game, Turkey took the lead again, 80-79, and did not lose it again.
The top scorer of the game was the Turkish forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cedi Osman, who had 27 points (3 of 7 triples), 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
In Uruguay, the top scorer was Alba Berlin point guard Jayson Granger with a double-double of 25 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists.
The Victoria tournament is divided into two groups of three teams each. In Group A are Canada, Greece and China while Group B is made up of Uruguay, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
The teams in each group will face each other from June 29 to July 1. The top two teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals to be played on July 3: the first from Group A against the second from Group B, and the first from Group B against the second from Group A.
The final will take place on July 4. The winner of the tournament will travel to the Tokyo Olympics.
(c) EFE Agency