Canada dominates Turkey to open FIBA OQT Manila

Tristan Thompson tries to put up a shot against a Turkey defender. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Tristan Thompson provided the intangibles he’s known for as a vital piece to Cleveland Cavaliers’ NBA championship run while Corey Joseph picked off where he left off as one of the Toronto Raptors’ top guards.

Canada came in as the favorites in the Fiba Olympic qualifying tournament in Manila and it showed why with a dominating 77-69 win over Turkey on Tuesday.

Joseph fired 11 of his 21 points in the third quarter where the Canadians, a potential semifinals opponent by the Philippines should Gilas advances past the group stage, broke loose.

“Obviously, a very tough game. We have a lot of respect for Turkish basketball. This Turkish team is a very well-coached team so we knew it was going to be a great battle and it was,” said Canada head coach Jay Triano.

“Throughout the whole game, even though we got ahead by 13 at one point it was still a tight basketball game and we were concerned of their ability to shoot the basketball,” Triano added.

Joseph actually scored nine points in the final one minute and 40 seconds of the third quarter where he put Canada on his back.

“I thought Corey was outstanding the way he had a feel for the game, his ability to use the pick and roll was pretty good and he got his teammates involved,” Triano said of Joseph, who won a championship as a member of the san Antonio Spurs in 2014.

Turkish guards Sinan Guler and Ali Muhammed, who torched Gilas in a tune-up game last week, were shut down by Canada with the naturalized point guard held scoreless, missing all of his eight attempts from the field.

Guler led Turkey with 14 points, but only had five in the second half.

Thompson did the dirty work for Canada, finishing with 10 points, highlighted by three dunks, six rebounds and three assists.

Turkey rued its poor offensive showing where it shot only 36% from the field, including 6-of-26 from the three-point area, and missed 15 free throws.

“We did not play good on the offensive side of the game. We played good defense but on offense we did not capitalize on our strengths,” Guler said.