Melvin Ejim with game-high 28 points, Canada beats U.S. Virgin Islands
NASSAU, Bahamas — Forward Melvin Ejim had a game-high 28 points and eight rebounds as Canada beat the U.S. Virgin Islands 118-89 on Thursday in first-round play at the FIBA Americas World Cup qualifier.
Canada trailed 27-21 after the first quarter but turned things around quickly in the second and went into the half up by five. The Canadians kept up the tempo in the second half and took a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter.
“We started off kind of sluggish. They were being really aggressive in the first half,” said Ejim.
“I think we played better defence in the second half and we were able to get some stops and really open the game up. They played really hard and got a lot of buckets in transition so we got to work on that.”