In his first national team appearance in six years and first home game since high school, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard scored 15 of his 32 points in a dominant third quarter to lead Canada to a 95-75 victory on the Dominican Republic. World Cup qualifiers. “We won. That’s the most important thing. But it was a fun night, definitely a fun night,” said the 23-year-old, who arrived at the arena wearing a Hockey Canada jersey. Canada improved to 5-0. The Dominican Republic dropped to 3-2 with both losses to Canada. Kelly Olynyk had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Canada. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who is Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin, also had 17 points in front of about 6,000 fans at the FirstOntario Centre. “It’s fun to be back here, especially in front of fans at the ground. You don’t get this opportunity every day,” said the 31-year-old Olynyk. “This group of guys, especially young guys, I feel like I’m the oldest guy out here right now. They’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of skill, and it’s fun to be out there.” Gilgeous-Alexander, who hadn’t played since mid-March with a lingering ankle injury, scored the first points of the night on a left-handed dunk. “I surprised myself a little bit. I’ve never had a left-handed dunk in my career,” he said, smiling. “That was a good way to start, good way to start for sure… but it probably won’t happen again.” His contributions, which also included five rebounds, five assists, three steals and a pair of blocks, earned him high praise from his teammates. “He’s definitely up there with the best of them,” said Olynyk, who made his national team debut in 2010. “It’s a privilege to play with a guy like that. We’ve had a lot of them come through this program now. He’s not alone. He’s fun to play with, fun to watch, fun to watch.” Victor Liz scored 12 points for the Dominican Republic. Canada is on the road Monday to play the winless U.S. Virgin Islands to complete the third qualifying window. The third of six windows marks the first gathering of coach Nick Nurse’s summer “core” of players, including four NBA players who started on Friday. Canada has been plagued by NBA absences for major tournaments. After failing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics last summer, Nurse asked the program’s best players to sign a three-year commitment to play with Canada until the 2024 Paris Olympics. The result was arguably the most talented gathering of Canadian players in camp last week in Toronto. Several, such as Jamal Murray who is recovering from injury, did not play, but Nurse said the week was a success. “It felt like we took another step forward in building. We had a lot of people in the gym,” he said. Nurse started his four NBA players on Friday: Gilgeous-Alexander, who received a standing ovation from his hometown crowd at the former Copps Coliseum, Alexander-Walker (Utah Jazz), Dwight Powell (Dallas Mavericks) and Olynyk ( Detroit Pistons), plus national team point guard Melvin Ejim.
In their first game in Ontario since 2018, the Canadians led throughout the opening period. A 3-pointer by Alexander-Walker at the buzzer gave Canada a 21-16 lead to start the second. The Dominican Republic briefly took the lead in the second quarter. A 16-5 run capped Kyle Alexander’s layup at the buzzer, however, giving Canada a 46-36 halftime lead. “We got to feel each other out as the game went on, I built some chemistry as the game went on and I was really happy with our defensive effort overall,” Nurse said. The Canadians pulled away in the third and took a 76-48 lead into the final frame. 80 countries divided into four regions participate in the World Cup qualifiers. Eight teams from the Americas qualify for the 2023 World Cup in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. The World Cup is the main qualifier for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The three remaining qualifying windows are in late August and November of this year and in February of 2023. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 1, 2022.