Tomas Satoransky it ended Canada’s hopes of making it to the Tokyo Olympics.
A Satoransky jumper with 1.8 seconds left in overtime ended up being the decisive basket in the Czech Republic’s 103-101 victory over Canada in a Semifinal of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Victoria, British Columbia, on Saturday.
It was a wild ending to a wild game: Canada trailed by six with less than 20 seconds left in regulation time before Andrew Wiggins scored six points in a 7.5 second span to tie the game and then the Czechs rallied from a five-point deficit in the final 2:18 of overtime.
Blake Schilb scored 31 points for the Czechs (2-1), who will play Greece or Turkey in Sunday’s title game in Victoria. The four qualifying tournament sites – Lithuania, Canada, Serbia and Croatia – will hold championship games on Sunday to determine the last four Olympic men’s basketball teams.
Satoransky scored 18 points, Patrik Auda scored 16 and Ondrej Balvin had 14 for the Czechs.
Rj barrett led Canada with 23 points. Wiggins scored 22, Nickeil Alexander-Walker ended with 21 and Trey lyles he had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the hosts.
Canada trailed by 12 points with 8:30 remaining in regulation time and trailed by nine in the last minute of the quarter before forcing overtime with a frenzied comeback. Wiggins scored and was fouled with 17.2 seconds left to put Canada at 94-91, Alexander-Walker stole the inning pass and gave the ball to Wiggins, whose 3-point with 10.7 seconds left tightened the score.
Canada then scored the first five points of overtime, but were outscored 9-2 the rest of the way and will miss the Olympics for the fifth time in a row. The Canadians last made it to the Olympic tournament in men’s basketball in 2000.
Associated Press contributed to this report.