Cuba withers against Canada in 2015 FIBA Americas

Canada crushed Cuba in the Olympic-qualifying 2015 FIBA Americas in Mexico City. Taking a lesson from the recent defeat against Argentina, Canada easily won over Cuba with a score of 101-59 and celebrated its first victory in the tournament.

Canada dominated Cuba and led the first quarter, 30-10. Cubans retaliated in the third quarter but Canada had already maintained a comfortable advantage. The Cubans were again outscored in the fourth quarter, 30-18.

Andrew Wiggins, who plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA, scored 15 points, 10 of which came in the opening quarter, and Nik Stauskas of the Philadelphia 76ers also scored 15 helping Canada to the easy victory.

Stauskas also had six rebounds and four assists while the 2014-2015 NBA Rookie of the Year in Wiggins added six rebounds and two blocks.

"I was trying to set the tone, trying to go hard in the first quarter, trying to give the whole team momentum going into the rest of the game," Wiggins later told the reporters.

Stauskas felt that after the first two quarters the team lost its momentum and went easy on the Cubans in the third quarter.

"Other than the third quarter, where I thought we maybe backed off a little bit and gave them too many opportunities," the shooting guard said."I thought we did a good job staying focused all game and playing our game."

25-year-old point guard Brady Heslip also contributed to Canada’s first victory with 12 points. Dwight Powell, who currently plays as a forward for Dallas Mavericks, also scored 10 points.

Jay Triano, a former Canadian basketball player and currently the head coach of the team also felt that team was more focused in comparison to their match against Argentina.

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