The Canadian Men's National Team went to a hostile environment looking for a win that would've put them one step closer to their goal of qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China, but they fell to a tough Venzeula team 84-76 on Friday evening.
After going through the tournament shooting the lights out at 51.3% from the field, Canada, who has now used 35 different players through the qualification period, struggled to find the range in Caracas, Venezuela on Friday and it led to their second loss so far.
Kyle Wiltjer had a team-high 21 points on 4-for-9 shooting from three-point range. The ageless Joel Anthony provided a spark defensively with three monstrous blocks to go along with his double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
JOEL ANTHONY AGAIN! 🚫 ❌ 🚫 ❌ #ThisIsMyHouse
— Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) November 30, 2018
🇻🇪 Venezuela 🆚 @CanBball 🇨🇦
📺 https://t.co/5VEs9rX5EF
📲 https://t.co/6BBBf6oObD
📝 https://t.co/LgS4HMqIyk pic.twitter.com/UYNYf2VAmA
Jose Vargas led the way for Venezuela with a team-high 15 points — he shot 2-for-4 from long range and the 3-point bombs he made were back breakers for the visitors.
With the win, Venezuela takes over first place in Group F putting itself in a good position to be one of seven teams who will qualify from the Americas region. The top three teams from Group F and Group E will qualify. The best fourth-place team from either group will be the seventh team to join them.
With both Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico losing on Friday, Canada is still in a good position to punch its ticket to China in August.
Group F
| Team | Games | Wins | Losses | +/- |
| Venezuela | 9 | 8 | 1 | 92 |
| Canada | 9 | 7 | 2 | 176 |
| Brazil | 9 | 7 | 2 | 126 |
| Dominican Republic | 9 | 5 | 4 | 52 |
| Virgin Islands | 8 | 2 | 6 | -113 |
| Chile | 8 | 1 | 7 | -125 |
A total of seven teams will qualify from the Americas region and will be apart of 32 teams total at the biggest edition of FIBA World Cup in China in 2019 (Aug. 31-Sept. 15, 2019).
The Canadians will look to bounce back from their defeat in another crucial game against Brazil on Monday. Canada owns a victory over Brazil already in this qualification process, but the team that was on the floor for Canada in Laval back in September had a bit of NBA talent on it.
Brazil who defeated the Dominican Republic 100-82 on Friday will be led by former NBAers Anderson Varejao and Leandro Barbosa.
You can catch that game on Monday, December 3rd at 5:00 p.m. ET on DAZN.