Canada blew a 21-point edge against Uruguay on Wednesday before pulling out a 70-68 victory. Now Canada must beat Panama today and hope Uruguay upsets Venezuela or the Canadians will have no chance to even sneak into the 2012 London Olympics through a last-chance qualification tournament next summer. The You First player Levon Kendall posted 19 points and 11 rebounds, despite a bad back. Kendall also helped keep Uruguay centre Batista to two points.
“I think I’ve been a little bit disappointed or discouraged with how I’ve been playing up until now in general,” Kendall said. “But as I told coach today, I said in the exhibition tour before this tournament, we had a couple big guys going down and I was playing 35, 36 minutes a game. So I told him I’m used to it leading up to this. First and foremost, we have to put ourselves in a position to get that win. After that, whatever happens happens.”