Canada won the bronze at the U-21. Levon Kendall was the leading scorer in the win over Australia. He had 15 points on 6-17 shooting, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers in 25 minutes.
Winning the bronze was the first time Canada has medalled in a FIBA-sanctioned event since winning the silver at the Munich Olympics in 1936.
The American squad (and those following were still in shock over losing to Canada). From Andy Katz (ESPN Insider Subs.):
It was Pittsburgh reserve forward Levan Kendall, who lit the Americans up for 40 points in 42 minutes. In the past five games, Kendall didn’t crack the top 30 in scoring in the tournament. He scored just seven points against Israel, four against Greece, nine against Argentina and 11 against Australia. He averaged a mere 3.5 points in 13.9 minutes in 22 games for the Panthers last season.
Get the picture?
“He was shooting 31 percent and averaging eight points prior to this,” Martelli told ESPN.com by phone from Argentina. “He was backing guys down and shot running hooks and banking in 3s. It was just one of those things.”
Martelli had Charlotte’s Curtis Withers, he of a 2-for-11 night, on him.
The Canadians essentially challenged the U.S. at every chance in this game.
“Every time they scored it was like a nine-point play instead of a two-point play,” Martelli said.
But how does this happen? If the U.S. was going to lose, the thought was it could occur in the semifinals or finals with the possibility that Australia, or maybe host Argentina or even Lithuania would clip the Americans. But Canada?
“There were a lot of things, it’s a really, really long trip and you have to factor in the players’ maturity level,” Martelli said. “They’ve hung in there for a whole trip but this is a different game. This isn’t an excuse but the way J.J. [Redick] and Allan Ray were guarded they would have shot double-digit foul shots in the college game. It’s not an excuse because we knew what we were getting into. We had to sustain our concentration, our focus and that’s challenging for a young team away from home.”
Sounds like an excuse. And since when do American players and coaches complain about physical play in basketball?
