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Nigeria held off a late Canadian push to win 90-81 in Winnipeg on Friday
Canada were unable to erase a 10-point deficit late in the fourth quarter, losing 90-81 to Nigeria in exhibition play as Canada’s’s shooting went cold down the stretch on Friday night.
Scrubb built his team a 7-0 lead to start the game and Canada finished the first quarter ahead 27-18 off his 10 points and six from Aaron best. Nwora had seven points in the first quarter.
a three-point shot by Nigeria’s Chimezie Metu (san antonio spurs) at the buzzer squeezed Canada’s lead to 49-47 at halftime.
the teams traded leads for most of the third quarter, but Nigeria was ahead 75-67 going into the fourth quarter.
Canada narrowed the gap to 82-81, but Nigeria’s Jordan Nwora hit a three-pointer with a minute remaining to make it 85-81 in front of 8,000 fans at bell mts place.
Nwora led all scorers with 19 points and the forward was good on all three of his three-point attempts. Canada defeated Nigeria 96-87 on Wednesday night in toronto in the opener of the two-game series.
both teams are gearing up for the fiba world cup, which starts later this month in china.
the canadians were flying to Australia after friday’s game for a five-game exhibition series against Australia, the u.s. and New Zealand. they’ll play Australia on aug. 16 and 17 and New Zealand twice (aug. 20-21). they wrap up their exhibition schedule Aug. 26 versus the U.S
the world cup has huge ramifications for the national program, as the top seven finishers qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. teams who don’t qualify are relegated to last-chance qualifying tournaments next summer.
