The dream of winning gold fell just short for the Canadian men’s basketball team at the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.
Team Canada brought home the silver medal after dropping their International University Sports Federation (FISU) finals appearance against Serbia by a score of 68-55 Aug. 22.
Third-year Carleton Ravens forward Tyson Hinz contributed 14 points in the gold medal tilt, tying Nathan Yu from the University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds for the scoring lead among Canadians.
Hinz scored the team’s first 10 points of the game, as the Canadian squad took control of the match in the early stages.
“[Hinz]’s performance at the [games] was incredible and there is no doubt that he will have opportunities to play overseas after his [Canadian Interuniversity Sport] career is over,” Team Canada and UBC head coach Kevin Hanson said in an email.
“There is no doubt in my mind that he will be very successful.”
Team Canada’s offence stalled in the second half, after entering halftime with a 34-32 lead. From that point, the canucks only managed to shoot 4-for-26 from the field, including a third quarter that saw them go without a single field goal.
Shooting guard Mladen Jeremic paced the Serbian squad with 17 points. Small forward Vladimir Lucic added 11 points for the team, which boasted several professional-level players.
“We definitely lost in a bad way, in terms of being able to beat them in pool play and then just getting manhandled in the final,” said fifth-year Ravens guard Cole Hobin. “It had a lot to do with effort, I think.”
Hobin scored two points and grabbed three rebounds in Team Canada’s defeat.
Hanson said he was pleased with Hobin’s own effort during the games.
“[Hobin] was the hardest working guy we had,” he said, “and he could change the level of intensity by his words and by his effort.”
“Both [Hobin and Hinz] have played in a lot of big games and have performed at very high levels in those games,” Hanson added.
“They come from a winning program and we knew that they would bring that winning attitude with them. That winning attitude became contagious for our team.”
The only loss for Team Canada, aside from the medal-clinching game, came at the hands of Australia.
They downed squads from Turkey, Serbia and Hong Kong in pool play, before defeating Romania and Lithuania in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Hanson had nothing but praise for Hinz and Hobin, not only for their play throughout the tournament, but also their personalities.
“They are grounded guys with a burning desire to be successful and that’s what makes them who they are,” he said. “They were both great ambassadors for Canada and it was great to have the opportunity to coach them.”
Despite their loss in the final game, however, Hobin was also pleased with the team’s result.
“As a whole, we did well, I think, given the short training camp we had compared to some other teams in the tournament,” he said. “It was amazing. It wasn’t like anything I’ve done before. It was a lot of fun.”