CHARLOTTE AMALIE, United States — Cassius Robertson had eight 3-pointers, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also had 24 points and Canada cruised to an easy 113-67 victory over the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday to improve to 6-0 in World Cup qualifying basketball championship.
Robertson and Gilges-Alexander both recorded their game-high points in less than 20 minutes of action.
Robertson, who plays for Obradoiro CAB in Spain, shot 61.5 percent from the arc (8-for-13) to account for all of his goals.
Gilges-Alexander, who sat for most of the second half, shot an efficient 84.6 percent (11-for-13) from the floor. It was the second straight big hit for the Oklahoma City Thunder star guard, who scored 32 points in his senior national team debut, a 20-point win over the Dominican Republic on Friday in his hometown of Hamilton.
Coach Nick Nurse started his four NBA players – Gilges-Alexander, Utah guard Nickail Alexander-Walker, Dallas forward Dwight Powell and Detroit center Kelly Olynyk – plus Team Canada veteran Melvin Ejim.
Alexander-Walker had a game-high seven assists to go along with 11 points (three 3-pointers) and five rebounds, Powell had 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting and added six rebounds, and Olynyk had 11 points, five rebounds and four steals.
Thomas Scrubb added 13 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Laren Smith led the US Virgin Islands with 14 points.
It was the third of six qualifying windows for the FIBA World Cup. The last three are August 22-30, November 7-15 and February 20-28.
Seven teams from FIBA Americas will play in the 2023 World Cup in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. The 32-team World Cup is a direct qualifier for the Paris Olympics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 4, 2022.
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