BOXSCORE

Birmingham, England (July 29, 2022) - The Canadian Senior Men’s 3X3 team opened play at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with a 1-1 record in Day 1 of competition.

In the team’s first game of the day, the Canadians notched a 15-12 victory over Kenya in the first-ever 3x3 game played at a Commonwealth Games. Bikramjit Gill led Canada with five points and 10 rebounds in the game.

“I’ve been in a lot of history makers in my career, but yesterday with the opening ceremony, I kind of got emotional, Gill said. “It might be a top-three moment in my life.

“And then today, another great event, getting to open the Games up for 3X3,” he continued. “It’s just kind of phenomenal. A lot of people look past it, but sometimes you’ve just got to be living in the moment, absorb what’s going on, see the people and see how excited they are. I’m happy. The crowd gave us a lot of love, so I’m just happy to be here to be honest.”

Though Canada jumped out to an early lead, and held a 13-6 advantage, Kenya came back late to make it just a three-point game with less than a minute remaining. After an offensive rebound from Adam Paige helped earn Canada an extra possession, time expired before Kenya could complete the comeback.

“It was an ugly win but in this game you take any win,” Alex Johnson said. “We’re going to build on this and get better for the next game.”

Canada won against Kenya despite going scoreless from beyond the arc, shooting 0-for-15 from two-point range.

In the team’s second game of the day, Canada fell 21-20 at the buzzer to a talented Scotland team to move to 1-1 in the competition. It was a close game throughout, with Canada tying the game at four points apiece on a two-point shot from Paige and then taking a two-point lead, 7-5, after three-straight points from Johnson with 7:04 remaining.

From there the teams traded ties and leads until a two-point shot from Johnson tied the game at 20 with 47 seconds remaining. After a strong defensive stance from Scotland in the final minute, Kyle Jimenez connected on a one-point shot buzzer-beater to give Scotland the win.

Jimenez led all scorers with eight points in the game for Scotland, while Canada had a balanced-scoring effort with Johnson, Paige and Jordan Jensen-Whyte each scoring six points in the loss. Canada shot 3-for-19 from two-point range in the game, and 13-for-18 from inside the arc.

“It was a super close game,” Paige said. “We’re continuing to struggle hitting the outside shot. That’s the thing about basketball generally, but 3x3 basketball specifically, sometimes the shots just don't go in, sometimes they do. There are some things we’re going to make adjustments on, but we’re confident those shots are going to start falling and we’ve still got lots of games to play.”