DONGGUAN, China -- Canada's men's basketball team finally has a World Cup victory.
Sacramento Kings guard Cory Joseph scored 24 points to lift the Canadians to a 82-60 victory over Senegal at the FIBA World Cup, Canada's first victory at the global tournament in 17 years.
Kevin Pangos chipped in with 13 points, Melvin Ejim had 11, and Khem Birch hauled down 10 rebounds for the Canadians who trailed by as many as 13 points early but turned the game around with a dominant third quarter.
Canada defeated Venezuela to finish 13th at the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis, then went 0-5 in Turkey in 2010.
Drawn into what was labelled the tournament's "Group of Death," the Canadians already had their work cut out for them when they touched down in China. Needing to beat at least one of Australia or Lithuania to advance, they lost both games -- 108-92 to the Aussies and 92-69 to Lithuania -- killing their hopes of advancing and earning one of the seven 2020 Olympic berths up for grabs.
Canada finished the preliminary round 1-2, while Senegal, which got a team-high 14 points from Mouhammad Faye on Thursday, went 0-3.
The Canadians fly to Shanghai on Friday for two important classification games that will determine whether Canada gets an invitation to one of the second-chance qualifying tournaments next June.
The storyline in China has been about the NBA players missing from Canada's lineup. Canada listed 17 NBA players on its training camp invitation, but only a handful showed up and just two -- Joseph and Khem Birch -- are in China. Kelly Olynyk was forced to withdraw after bruising his knee in an exhibition game.
Canada got off to a sluggish start Thursday against a long and athletic Senegal team, and a three-pointer by Xane Dalmeida gave Senegal a 13-lead late in the first quarter. Canada trailed 22-11 to start the second.
Canada found its form in the second. Consecutive three-pointers by Brady Heslip and Kevin Pangos capped a 22-4 second-quarter run to give Canada its first lead. Joseph scored on pullup jumper to stretch the Canadians' lead to five points, and they went into the halftime break up 33-32.
A Pangos three put Canada up by 10 with 3:11 to play in the third. The FC Barcelona point guard connected on another shot from deep with 53 seconds left in the quarter, and Canada cruised into the fourth at Dongguan Basketball Center up 59-46
Australia and Lithuania played for first place in Group H in the Thursday's late game.
The results of other groups says plenty about Group H. Canada swept Brazil, and beat Venezuela and the Dominican Republic in World Cup qualifying and those three countries advanced out of their World Cup groups.
While Canada won its World Cup qualifying group, six teams from the Americas zone including the U.S. have better records than Canada in China, which could hurt Canada's chances of earning a second-chance spot.
