After leading Canada in scoring in consecutive games at the Under-19 World Championships in Serbia, SDSU sophomore forward Kai Williams garnered a mention at - among other places - NBADraft.net:
A player to watch is Kai Williams (a sophomore at South Dakota State) who has a prototypical NBA SF body and does all the little things on the court including playing lock down defense.
:-/There seems to be a misconception that Canada has advanced to the U19 Quarter-Finals after their upset win over Argentina. That is not the case.
What killed Canada's chances of advancing was Korea's upset win over Turkey. This left Turkey, Argentina, and Canada tied with 3-3 records. Only two can advance and since they were all 1-1 in head to head play, point differential is next. Unfortunately for Canada, they are behind both Turkey and Argentina so they finish fifth in the group.
Had Turkey defeated Korea, Canada and Argentina would have been tied for 4th and Canada would have advanced based on head-to-head record.
SO NOW INSTEAD OF PLAYING THE BEST TEAM USA WE PLAY THE WORST TEAM OF THE TOURNEY CHINA !!!!!
Canada Defeats Argentina but fails to advance after Korea shocks Turkey
6'6" Kai Williams had 25 points, including 17 after halftime, and added 11 rebounds plus a big block down the stretch to lead Canada (3-3) to a solid 87-82 victory over Argentina (3-3) as the "eight round" concluded at the FIBA World U19 basketball championships in Serbia. With the win, Canada put themselves in a position to advance to tomorrow's championship quarter-finals; however, Korea (2-4) shocked Turkey (3-3) earlier in the day, resulting in a 3 way tie for the two remaining Group F spots in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, Canada lost the tie breaker (margin points for and points against) and will now compete for 9th to 12th place spots beginning tomorrow. Canada did not trail after the first quarter in the game and withstood two late Argentinian runs as Williams again was a monster at both ends, scoring Canada's first 7 points of the second half as Canada grabbed a 52-43 lead and then helping seal the game on the foul line and with a key block with under 3 minutes remaining. Argentina made the game interesting late, getting the game back 2 with 1:53 remaining on back-to-back 3's by 6'0" Nicolas De Los Santos (24 points) but 6'2" Devoe Joseph (14 points on 5-15 shooting, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 turnovers) who had turned the ball over on 2 consecutive possessions allowing Argentina back in the game, knocked down a huge three on the next possession and Canada held on from there. 6'7" Boris Bakovic had another solid 17 point/13 rebound effort, energizing Canada early with 13 first-half points when starters D. Joseph, 6'6" Jon House and 6'8" Scott Brittain were all on the bench with 2 early fouls. Brittain added 10 points and 5 rebounds for Canada, who will meet China tomorrow at 9:45 ET and with a victory will vie for 9th place in the tournament on Friday against the winner of the Lithuania/Korea matchup. In the end, Canada's rough start and subsequent poor performance against Turkey in the second game of the tournament which led to a 22 point loss came back to haunt the group which appeared to be peaking at the right time. Hopefully Canada can refocus and come home with 9th place and a 5-3 overall record in the tournament.
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ARG/CAN - Argentina go through despite defeat
Boxscores
NOVI SAD (FIBA U19 World Championship) - Argentina qualified for the quarter-finals of the FIBA U19 World Championship despite an 87-82 defeat to Group F rivals Canada.
Guillermo Narvarte's side will now face USA in the knockout stages on Friday after they secured top spot in Group E.
Canada had Kai Williams' 25-point haul to thank for victory as Nicolas De Los Santos (24 points) almost stole a dramatic win for Argentina.
The first quarter started in blistering fashion with both sides focusing their attentions on attack rather then defence.
Yet there was nothing to separate the two teams as the opening period ended 24-24 thanks to eight-point hauls from Argentinian pair De Los Santos and Federico Aguerre and Canada's Boris Bakovic.
Greg Francis' outfit quickly learnt from their mistakes from the opening period and tightened their defence to race into a 38-28 lead midway through the second quarter.
And Canada managed to sustain the advantage all the way until the break to go into the half-time interval eight points clear at 45-37.
The deficit remained intact as the third period wore on, yet an impressive last minute spell from Aguerre reduced their lead to just four points going into the final period.
However, it proved to be sufficient as Canada withstood a barrage of Argentinian pressure to win the encounter by a five-point margin.
Although it has been a great tourney for him, I wish the points spread would have got them into the 1/4 finals.
Today is an off day for all teams that participated in the "eight-round" over the past 3 days. Canada, who finished 3-3 after the "eight-round" but lost a spot in the quarter-finals after losing a 3 way tie breaker with Turkey and Argentina, will meet China in a classification game at 9:45 ET on Friday and the winner of that game will play for ninth place on Saturday against the winner of the Lithuania/Korea game to be played Friday at 7:30 AM. The championship quarter-finals are set for Friday as follows:
USA vs Argentina 7:30 AM
Brazil vs Australia 9:45 AM
Serbia vs Turkey 12:00 Noon
France vs Spain 2:30 PM
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