MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Feb 26, 2024) - The Senior Men’s National Team continues the first window of qualification for the FIBA Men’s Basketball AmeriCup 2025 tonight in Nicaragua.

What: FIBA Men's AmeriCup 2025 Qualifiers

When: Feb. 26, 2024, 8:10 p.m. ET / 5:10 p.m. PT

Where: Polideportivo Alexis Argüello, Managua, Nicaragua

Strong opening: The Senior Men’s National Team opened FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025 Qualifiers with a dominant 96-51 victory behind a 21-point performance from Aaron Best as Canada had five players reach double figures. The Canadians never trailed after using a hot-shooting first quarter to build a 10-point lead after the opening 10 minutes.

With their first victory secured, Canada is now in Nicaragua to finish ut their "home and away" series against Nicaragua in the first window of the FIBA Men's AmeriCup 2025 Qualifiers. Elsewhere in this first window, Mexico and the Dominican Republic join Canada and Nicaragua in Group C. The Dominican Republic defeated Mexico 84-70 in Santo Domingo in their first meeting.

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From deep: The Canadians started Friday’s game hot from beyond the arc, and they didn’t cool down as they built a 16-point lead by the half and went into the fourth quarter leading by 29 points. While Best led the way with five three-pointers, including four in that pivotal opening quarter where Canada built their lead, Jackson Rowe finished with four buckets from downtown and Phil Scrubb and Kadre Gray added a trio of threes each as Canada shot 17-for-50 from deep. In comparison, Nicaragua connected on just 6-of-23 attempts from long range. For all of Canada’s success from deep, Best's impact on the other end of the floor had Team Canada associate head coach Nate Bjorkgren dishing out praise.

“I know his three-point shots and the points that he scored in the first quarter, it’s obviously huge, but he impacts the game even more on the defensive end, and his defence creates his offence,” Bjorkgren said about the game’s top scorer. “His defence creates our team's offence. That’s what we talk about a lot. They were relentless in how they defended and Aaron Best is a big, big part of that.”

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Protecting homecourt: Canada is always looking for the win, but getting to open qualifiers with a win on home soil in St. Catherines, Ontario made things that much sweeter for a roster of guys who travelled from all across the globe to be together and suit up for the red and white for this FIBA Window.

“For me it’s always fun to come home, or wherever we need to be, to link up with the guys again and get to share stories, catch up with everybody and reminisce over the old times when we used to play against each other,” Best said. “A lot of guys on this team have played against, have played with, for a long period of time. I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of a couple of these windows the past few years and it’s always nice to regroup with the guys and wear [the] Canada [jersey].

"It was great to play on home soil in front of the home fans," Best continued. "We just try to play the right way on both ends and just be a team out there. Just make it as difficult as possible. I think we were able to do that for 40 minutes and we're looking forward to the challenge of playing them again on the road."

Bjorkgren has manned the sideline for Canada's Senior Men's National Team during previous windows leading up to the FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023, and is serving as head coach during this window as well while program head coach Jordi Fernandez is coaching with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA. Though this group is not new to him, their performance never gets old.

“The pure basketball that they play, the honour that they play with, it means so much to them to put the Team Canada jersey on,” Bjorkgren said. “It’s a beautiful thing. I told them that before the game. That’s the way they play and that’s what we wanted to do for the people in the stands today. Maybe it was a kid's first game that they ever saw and hopefully that basketball continues to catch on because like I mentioned before, it’s really building in the country and there’s a lot of good things to come."

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Where to watch: Fans in Canada can catch all of the action live on Sportsnet Plus as well as streaming on Courtside 1891.