Dominican Republic and Canada lead Group C ahead of second window

 MIAMI (United States) – The Dominican Republic is set to host Group C at the Palacio de los Deportes in Santo Domingo for the second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers. The host and Canada arrive undefeated after their first two games, while the Virgin Islands and the Bahamas will seek their first wins in the tournament.

The two island nations will lead off the first day Saturday, February 26 (3:00 p.m., local time), while the leaders will face each other in the second game (7:00 p.m., local time).

Both Dominicans and Canadians celebrated with victories in the November window, which was also played in Santo Domingo. The Dominican Republic led by Melvyn López had no problems beating the Virgin Islands twice (87 -65 and 100 -56) while the Canadians led by Nate Bjorkgren beat the Bahamas (115-73 and 113- 77), the largest margins of victory in the first round of Qualifiers.

The core of the Canadian team, who play in the top levels of Spanish professional basketball, Kyle Wiltjer (24 average points per game) and Kyle Alexander (9.5 rebounds) were the leaders of the Canadian squad in this first stage and will see the return of Kaza Kajami-Keane in window two after missing the first round due to a knee injury.

"I'm excited. I've been playing for the national team for five years and when you miss - it bothers you. I'm happy to be around the guys and prepare for these games. The National Team has become like a family," said Kaza Kajami-Keane through Canada Basketball.

 

For his part, captain Víctor Liz with 22.5 points leads López's team. The Dominicans dominated the boards, scoring the most points per game in the paint among any team in the region (47).

 

“We are going in with a lot of energy and are determined to win these two games, raising our record to 4-0. We are looking to get back to the World Cup for a third in a row,” said coach Melvyn López, through the countries federation.

 

In the most recent contests between the Canadians and the Dominicans (China World Cup Qualifiers 2019 and AmeriCup 2023 Qualifiers) they split the two contests.

To reverse the first phase results in Group C

Virgin Islands and Bahamas, who are winless so far in these Qualifiers, will face each other in the first round of the day. This will be the third meeting between the Bahamians and Islanders in the Qualifiers, with the latter winning the previous two matchups by a nine-point margin.

For this second round, Bahamas head coach Moses Johnson will not have forward David Nesbitt, the leading scorer in the first two games in the Bahamas (15.0 points), but will have experienced power forward Tavario Miller, while the Virgin Islands led by Donald Bough will have his leading scorer, Ivan Aska, who averaged 12.0 in November.

 

“We have a solid team to compete in these games. Now we can move forward and plan to compete in this next window. We will have a renewed team with some of the players who return after not having been in November,” Johnson told the Bahamas Basketball Federation.

 

One thing to take note of in Group C - Víctor Liz (Dominican Republic) with 202 points and Georgio Milligan (Virgin Islands) with 219 are two players who have scored more than 200 points among all players from the Americas in the competition.

On Sunday the 27th, the Dominican Republic will close Group C against the Bahamas (7:00 p.m. local time), while Canada will do the same against the Virgin Islands (4:00 p.m. local time).

FIBA