Australia falls to Canada despite Humphries' monster effort | FIBA U17 World Championship
Isaac Humphries was the man of the moment but his huge effort wasn't enough as Australia falls to Canada - a tough 85-74 loss.
Isaac Humphries | Photo courtesy FIBA - via Basketball Australia
Isaac Humphries had the performance of the tournament - 41 pts (16/23 FG, 9/11 FT), 19 rbs & 5 blks - with scouts and journalists alike raving about his performance. The huge showing wasn't enough, however, as Canada got the best of the Aussie 'Goannas'.
With Canada's star big-man Nolan Narain absent from the tournament due to injury, Australia was quick to feed the ball down low - and it paid dividends. Isaac Humphries scored Australia's first 16 points, including 2 dunks, to give them a quick 16-9 lead midway through the quarter. Foul trouble caused Humphries to sit for the latter end of the quarter as Canada stormed back, the Aussies with a 25-22 lead heading into the first break.
The 2nd quarter saw more of the same, Humphries dominating the paint every time he touched the ball. Canada managed to stay in the game and eventually took the lead with a jumper from Brandon Cyrus - who will join Humphries at La Lumiere School next year. With Canada finding their rhythm on offence and Australia starting to struggle with theirs, the Aussie 'Goannas' went into the half trailing 33-37.
Isaac Humphries | Photo courtesy FIBA - via Basketball Australia
With Vasiljevic struggling to get his shot to fall, Australia managed to stay in the game throughout the 3rd - trailing 51-59 heading into the final period.
The 4th quarter was when Canada started to heat up. Prolific scorer Jamal Murray was seemingly hitting every shot and, with Canada up 79-70, Howard Washington Jr hit the dagger - a jumpshot from the right wing at the end of the shot clock. Canada would go on to win 85-74.
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With the score still close at 3 quarter time, Australia started to take a lot of perimeter jumpers as opposed to going inside. This derailed the Aussies and they weren't able to fight back.
Team captain Tom Wilson finished with 9 pts & 3 rbs while Kyle Clark was extremely impressive off the bench with 8 pts & 4 rbs.
Australia will face Greece in the first game of the knockout rounds.
Note: Isaac Humphries' 41 pts tonight was a FIBA U17 World Championship record. Previous record was Korea's Heo Hoon with 37 pts. Humphries also had a FIBA record 56 efficiency rating.
Visit FIBA’s YouTube channel for a replay.