The SMNT picked up an 83-55 victory

(Dubai, UAE) – The Senior Men’s National Team defeated Thailand 83-55 on Sunday evening to pick up their first win at the IWBF World Championships.

Nik Goncin finished with a game-high 29 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the victory. Patrick Anderson added 21 points and seven rebounds, while Colin Higgins chipped in seven points and six assists.

“That was a no-lose situation tonight. We had to win that game,” Goncin said. “We knew Thailand was going to come out firing, and they played really well in the first quarter, but it was a matter of sustainability – we weren’t sure they could do that for four quarters.

The big thing was continuing to do what we were doing and not to worry about the score early on.”

Team Canada fell behind 6-2 early and, despite going on a 5-0 run to briefly take the lead, trailed 21-18 after the first quarter. Led by 10 points from Anderson, Canada pulled away in the second quarter out-scoring Thailand 22-10 to carry a 40-31 lead into halftime and never looked back.

Canada closed out the third quarter with an 11-2 run and held a 22-point lead heading into the fourth quarter The Senior Men’s National Team finished shooting 55 per cent from the field while limiting Thailand to 22 of 62 shooting.

Complete stats from Sunday’s win over Thailand can be found here.  

The Senior Women’s National Team is back in action on Monday when they face Spain at 11 a.m./ET.