Canada falls to Serbia in FIBA World Cup semifinals, loses chance at gold
While they managed to get past the likes of Spain and Slovenia, Canada’s dreams of winning FIBA World Cup gold were crushed by Serbia in Friday’s semifinal game at Manila Arena.
The Serbians, whose roster does not include superstar Nikola Jokic, took the hard-fought game by a score of 95-86.
Despite looking like a cakewalk for Serbia early on as they grabbed an 8-0 lead, Canada was still in the game, finishing the first quarter down by a score of 23-15.
Sweet dish from RJ Barrett there. š#FIBAWC | @CanBball pic.twitter.com/A1ZVKxEakp
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) September 8, 2023
However, Canada struggled to bridge the gap, which only grew larger by halftime as the Serbians made it 52-39.
Although Canada put up more points than Serbia in the final quarter (23-20), it was not enough to take the lead or tie things up.
By far the most dominant player on the court, Serbia’s Bogdan BogdanoviÄ had 15 of his own before the third quarter started. By the end of the match, the shooting guard had logged 23 points, four rebounds, and three steals on eight-of-12 shooting.
While he put up a respectable 15 points in the game, star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was not Canada’s top scorer for once. That title belonged to RJ Barret, who scored 23 for Canada (5-2).
In the future, the Canadians will try to win their first medal in the history of the global tournament when they face the Germany-US loser for the bronze on Sunday.
This year marks the second time in the past three years that Serbia has advanced to the FIBA World Cup Final.
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