Gilas foe Dominican Republic stuns Canada behind Towns' solid game

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – Karl Anthony-Towns made a triumphant return to the Dominican Republic national team after 10 years, leading them to a 94-88 upset of Canada on Friday (Saturday, Manila time) in Granada, Spain.

Towns led the Dominicans with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and grabbed six rebounds in his first international game since he was 16.

The Minnesota Timberwolves star shot 3-of-5 from the 3-point range and added two assists.

However, he had seven turnovers in the game.

Karl-Anthony Towns highlights in the win over Canada. 20 points on 6-9 shooting

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— Teg???? (@IQfor3) August 18, 2023

Towns, a three-time NBA All-Star, drew plenty of help as national team mainstays LJ Figueroa (20 points) and Angel Delgado (10 points, 12 rebounds) did their share.

However, the tight win came with an asterisk as Canada rested its starters in the second half. The game was tied through three quarters. Towns’ fadeaway jumper with 3:42 left extended the Dominican Republic’s lead to eight, 82-74, which was enough cushion to grind out the victory.

Canada’s top two scorers -- New York Knicks starting wing RJ Barrett and Oklahoma City Thunder’s All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – only played 13 minutes each.

Alexander’s Thunder teammate Lu Dort led the Canadians with 13 points, while Trae Bell-Haynes had 12. Barrett added 10 despite playing limited minutes.

It was the Dominican’s first win in three warm-up games leading to the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where they are grouped with Gilas Pilipinas, Angola and Italy.

Towns will have two more tuneup games to acclimatize himself with his Dominican teammates. They will face top-ranked Spain (August 19) and Egypt (August 22) before flying to Manila, Philippines.

They will open their World Cup campaign against Gilas on August 25 at the Philippine Arena in front of what is expected to be a record-breaking crowd.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas announced on August 14 that 28,000 tickets had already been sold for the opening match. The FIBA gate attendance record stands at 32,616 in the 1994 Toronto edition.

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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based website Heavy.com.