Yes, I know most of you don’t even want to think about basketball at this point, tough. Kendall going off like he did in that game — against US College basketball players no less — is huge.

I am somewhat annoyed that the AP write-up is perfectly willing to mention that Allen Ray plays for Villanova, but Kendall is merely from Canada. Vancouver. The Canadian version only mentions that Kendall is from Vancouver. The quotes are priceless:

“Personally, I had a great afternoon,” Kendall said. “As a team we played hard defence and took good shots. It is the first time I’ve scored 40 points in one game.”
…
“Canada’s performance was outstanding,” U.S. Coach Phil Martelli said. “Kendall scored 40 points, but as a team they played very well. Their defence was exceptional. They took 16 offensive rebounds.

“Our mistake was that we scored fewer points than they did.”

That will usually cost you a game.

And Kendall scored in crunch moments.

With the United States up 82-78 and less than a minute to play, University of Pittsburgh’s (Pa.) 6-9 forward Levon Kendall scored in the lane to close to 82-80. The U.S. was unable to convert on the other end and Canada came up with the board, got it to Kendall, who tied it with 29.9 seconds left to play. Canada’s defense forced the U.S. to run out the 24-second shot clock without getting off an attempt, but Canada wasn’t able to get the ball up the court in the final seconds and overtime was forced.

Canada struck first in the extra period and Taj Gray (Oklahoma) evened it up with a pair from the stripe at 4:13. Kendall scored at 3:50 to give Canada an 86-84 lead, one it would keep for the rest of the game. The ball went back and forth before Rajon Rondo (Kentucky) was sent to the line at 2:49, but sunk just the second attempt. Canada got its final field goal of the game at 2:24 from UNC-Wilmington’s 6-10 center Vlad Kuljanin to make it 88-85.

After a pair of turnovers, the ball was back in the USA’s hands but Marcus Williams’ (Connecticut) 3-point attempt bounced around the rim, wouldn’t go in and Canada recovered the board. Heading inside again, Kendall was fouled by Curtis Withers (Charlotte), his fifth of the game, and nailed both attempts with 58 tics remaining. On the USA’s next trip up the court a 3-point attempt failed. Rondo grabbed the rebound and started to drive, but turned it over to the Canadians.

[Emphasis added.]

Now that’s the kind of performance to take into the coming season.