Cory Joseph Produces His Best, Helping Canada Beat Turkey In Olympic Qualifier Tournament
Canada beat higher-ranked Turkey on the back on Cory Joseph’s 21 points in this Olympic Qualifier in Manila.
If the FIBA Olympic Qualifier in Manila follows script, France will play Turkey in the final to decide the team who qualifies. Team Canada is not going to let that happen.
Despite being ranked 26th in the world, they beat Turkey 77-69 on Tuesday. Turkey is ranked in the top 10 in the world at No. 8.
Cory Joseph is the captain of this team and did he play a true captain’s game. In 35 minutes, Joseph scored 21 points on the back of 8-of-17 shooting. He also shot 1-for-3 from beyond the three-point line. In a complete game, Joseph also had three rebounds and five assists.
Anthony Bennett, who got a contract last season with the Toronto Raptors based on his performance with Team Canada (he was later cut), was not originally named to the team.
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Bennett played 17 minutes and scored four points as well as collecting three rebounds, one assist and one block.
Let’s hope that he plays well enough that the Brooklyn Nets come knocking on his door by the end of the Olympic Qualifiers.
Tyler Ennis played 17 minutes, scoring six points on 1-of-4 shooting including 4-of-4 from the line Ennis also had three rebounds and two assists.
Tristan Thompson played 29 minutes and it is safe to say he did not have his best offensive game only shooting 3-of-11 on his way to ten points. He did also have six rebounds and three assists.
For Turkey, Omer Asik had a typical game for him. He scored four points and collected six rebounds.
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The 31st pick of the 2015 draft,
Cedi Osman, whose rights belong to the
, showed why they were interested in him. In 25 minutes, he had 10 points on 2-of-8 shooting, 6-of-6 from the line. He also had five rebounds and one steal.
Furkan Korkmaz played for the first time on the international stage since being drafted. Unfortunately for those who wanted to see his skills, Korkmaz only played four minutes, scoring two points, all from the foul line. He also had one assist in that time.
The free-throw line played a big factor in the outcome, as Canada was 20-for-24 (83 percent) to just 19-for-34 (56 percent) for the Turks. At this level, it is almost unacceptable for players of this quality to go below 75 percent. It is the easiest skill to practice and it is so crucial to the game.
Canada shot slightly worse from the field with 45 percent compared to Turkey’s 46 percent.
Three-point percentage was a different story, Turkey was just 6-for-26 (23 percent) compared to Canada’s respectable 7-for-19 (37 percent).
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Most other numbers were reasonably close as you would expect in an eight point game. Turkey won the rebounding 40-38, while each team had 11 turnovers and six steals.
Canada plays Senegal Wednesday in their last game, assured that they will make it through to the semifinals. Now Turkey has to beat Senegal on the last game to ensure they qualify for the semifinals.