The Canadian national team put in an impressive performance against the Australian Boomers with a comfortable 90-70 win in their World Cup warm-up game at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
Canada led by 10 at half-time, before the Boomers mounted a third-quarter comeback to tie things up at 57-57, with Patty Mills scoring 10 of his game-high 20 points in the period.
From there the Canadians took control, holding the Boomers to just 10 points in the fourth quarter to seal the win
Kevin Pangos capped off an impressive performance, knocking down back-to-back jumpers down the stretch to get the lead back to 10, before Khem Birch put an exclamation mark on the win with this emphatic jam.
.@Khem_Birch explodes for the finish off the dime from @AndrewNembhard as @CanBball 🇨🇦 defeat @BasketballAus 🇦🇺 90-70 in their #FIBAWC prep game! 💪#CanadaGotGame #BoomersCanada pic.twitter.com/KbTGgiCIF9
— Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) August 16, 2019
Andrej Lemanis' squad found the going tough on the offensive end, lacking cohesion throughout the game, which resulted in 15 turnovers to Canada's nine.
“I think we have had two good camps so far but we have definitely got a lot of room to improve,” Matthew Dellavedova said postgame.
“They were running their stuff and knew where their looks were coming from. I think we will continue to get better.
“We got some better looks in the second half but we need to start better as well.”
Meanwhile, the Canadians found their offensive groove from the jump, with Pangos directing traffic and creating plenty of clean looks for his teammates as Canada knocked down 13-of-32 from beyond the arc.
Pangos led Canada with 18 points, six assists and four steals, while Andrew Nembhard added 12 points, 10 rebounds and four assists off the bench.
Mills led Australia with 20 points on 8-of-18 for shooting, while big man Jock Landale impressed in the paint with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Andrew Bogut added 10 points and 13 rebounds on the night.
Just Andrew N🚫GUT things.#GoBoomers 📺 @SBSVICELAND pic.twitter.com/SxG5T5STaW
— NBL (@NBL) August 16, 2019
Canada will take on Australia again on Saturday from 5:30am E.T.