Tomas Satoransky ended Canada’s hopes of making the Tokyo Olympics.
Satoransky’s fading-away, off-the-glass jumper with 1.8 seconds left in overtime wound up being the deciding basket in the Czech Republic’s 103-101 win over Canada in an Olympic qualifying tournament semifinal at Victoria, British Columbia, on Saturday.
It was a wild end to a wild game: Canada was down by six with less than 20 seconds left in regulation before Andrew Wiggins scored six points in a span of 7.5 seconds 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 (2-1) in Sunday’s title game at Victoria. All four sites of qualifying tournaments — Lithuania, Canada, Serbia and Croatia — will hold championship games Sunday to determine the last four teams in the Olympic men’s basketball field.
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 finished with 21 and Trey Lyles had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the hosts.
Lyles had a baseline jumper rim out as time expired in overtime.
Optimism was high for Canada to reach the Olympics because of a roster stacked with NBA players: Alexander-Walker (Pelicans), Barrett (Knicks), Luguentz Dort (Thunder), Cory Joseph (Pistons), Mychal Mulder (Warriors), Wiggins (Warriors), Dwight Powell (Mavericks), and Lyles (Spurs). The team was coached by Nick Nurse, head coach of the Toronto Raptors.
Canada trailed by 12 points with 8:30 left in regulation and was down by nine in the final minute of the fourth before forcing overtime with a frantic comeback. Wiggins scored and got fouled with 17.2 seconds left to get Canada within 94-91, Alexander-Walker stole the inbounds pass and got the ball to Wiggins — whose 3-pointer with 10.7 seconds left knotted the score.
Canada then scored the first five points of overtime, but got outscored 9-2 the rest of the way and will miss the Olympics for the fifth consecutive time. The Canadians last made the Olympic field in men’s basketball in 2000.
Satoransky’s OT game-winner ends Olympic dream of NBA-stacked Team Canada (VIDEO) originally appeared on NBCSports.com