Canada held off Greece 86-79 at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium to secure an important win in Group A.
Greece pushed Canada to the limit and made things interesting late. Giannis Antetokounmpo had a monstrous performance, finishing with 34 points.
Rowan Barrett was part of the last Canadian team at the Olympics in 2000.
Fast forward 24 years, and his son RJ was the first person to score for Canada. He was also the last person to score as he served up an emphatic exclamation dunk. Barrett was Canada’s best player throughout the game, finishing with 23 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
However, Barrett had a lot of help too. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 21 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Meanwhile, Dillon Brooks finished 14 points on three made threes, before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.
Canada was clearly the better team in the first-half. They opened up a 16-point lead early in the second-half and it looked like they were going to cruise to the easy win.
However, Antetokounmpo and Greece wouldn’t go away. They took advantage of Canada’s foul trouble late in this game. They went on a late run to cut Canada’s 12-point lead to just 2. Luguentz Dort, Dwight Powell and Dillon Brooks all fouled out before the end of the game.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander then responded as he got out of a double team and hit a runner over Antetokounmpo to make it 82-78 with 42.8 left on the game clock.
On the other end Antetokounmpo made only one-of-two free throws to cut the Canadian lead to three.
Greece then sent Jamal Murray to the line with 15.2 seconds remaining and he hit both free throws to ice the game.
Canada was tested in this one and they will need to be better the rest of the way. However, this was a good Olympic learning experience for them as they secure their first win at the Olympics in 24 years.
Next on tap
Canada will be in action next on July 30 when they take on Australia.
Australia defeated Spain 92-80 in the other Group A game.
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