Author

Joel Osborne writes

Posted Tuesday, April 10th 2018 @BristolSportJO

Kapoulas’ Gold Coast campaign ends in defeat to Canada

Tuesday, April 10th 2018

Andreas Kapoulas’ Gold Coast campaign came to an end as England suffered a 97-79 defeat to Canada in the qualifying finals at the Commonwealth Games.

Led by 22 points from Adam Thoseby, England exit the competition with a record of 2-2.

Bristol Flyers’ forward Daniel Edozie played in 12 minutes off the bench, finishing with six points and five rebounds.

BOX SCORE

WHAT HAPPENED

Canada raced out the blocks to build an early double digit lead through Connor Morgan, who scored 11 points in the opening period on 5/5 shooting from the field.

Jamell Anderson sank a much needed three for England, but Kapoulas’ side were in all sorts of trouble, being outscored 30 points to 12 in the opening quarter whilst shooting just 26% from the field.

A huge defensive stop from Robert Gilchrist opened the second period for England, but they failed to score a field goal in the opening four minutes to force Kapoulas to burn his second time-out of the half.

Canada stretched their lead to 25 points with the simple lay-up in transition before Shane Walker stopped the drought for England with their first field goal of the second quarter.

Kofi Josephs completed the three point play, but England’s turnover tally went up to ten as Canada took a commanding 26-55 lead heading into the half.

Walker opened the third with a mid-range jumpshot, shortly followed by a pair of Thoseby lay-ups to shift momentum in England’s favour.

Josephs knocked down his first three pointer of the game to get his personal tally to double figures, cutting the Canadian lead to 21 points.

Edozie quickly scored in transition, but that was shortly followed by another three-ball from Canada.

Thoseby sank another triple as part of a seven point trip down the floor for England to give them a small glimmer of hope - the lead cut down to 16 points.

At the end of the third, the score was 58-77 in Canada’s favour.

Morgan opened the fourth with another three pointer for Canada on his way to a game-high 24 points.

Edozie polished Thoseby’s missed free throw, before another Josephs three briefly narrowed the Canadian lead to 16 once again.

Canada remained composed and responded with a pair of threes to extend their lead to 89-67, extinguishing any chance of an England comeback.

Edozie sank a pair of free throws in the final 90 seconds, but England were ultimately punished by a slow start in Cairns, the final score 97-79.

Photo credit - 5or6