CARACAS – Despite the 57-74 defeat against Canada, the Vinotinto of baskets managed to stamp the entrance ticket for the world cup, which will be played in this 2023 in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, thanks to Argentina’s simultaneous defeat against the Republic Dominicana which allowed Fernando Duró’s team to finish in third place in Group E.
In the match against Canada, Venezuela started with the following quintet David Cubillan, Jhorman Zamora, Garly Sojo, Nestor Colmenares and Windi Graterol. On the other side, the national maple leaf had Kenny Chery, Phil Scrubb, Thomas Scrubb, Conor Morgan and Kalif Young.
Vinotinto got off to a great start, so much so that in the first 5 minutes they led the match by 15-9. Then, the Canadian coach asked for a timeout and his boys reversed the situation by closing the first quarter on 17-22. The best at that time was the Canadian Philip Scrubb
Unlike the match against the Bahamas, the Vinotinto national team was not so precise with shots from distance. In this half the best was Jackson Rowe who scored 10 points and Canada finished the half with a score of 30-37.
In the third half the story doesn’t change, Venezuela continued with the inaccuracies by closing this fraction with only 8 points scored. And so the national maple leaf closes on 38-53.
In the last quarter, Vinotinto tried to even the score, but without success: the minimum distance was 7 points. The last quarter was very tight with a score of 19-21 for Canada. At the sound of the siren the match ended on 57-74.
The man of the match for Venezuela were Néstor Colmenares (with 13 points and 10 rebounds) and Michael Carrera (with 10 points and 11 rebounds).
For Venezuela it will be the fifth presence in a world cup, the second in a row. He had previously participated in Argentina 1990, USA 2002, Japan 2006 and China 2019.
(by Fioravante De Simone / Caracas editorial staff)
