Canadian men's 3x3 team advances to quarterfinals at Macau event after clutch win

The Canadian men's 3x3 team are off to the quarterfinals at a FIBA event in Macau after splitting their pool games on Saturday.

Canada began its day in Pool C with a tough 19-17 loss to the No. 6-ranked Riga team out of Latvia.

The game was tightly contested throughout, with neither team leading by more than three at any point of the game.

With Canada down by two late, Bikramjit Gill iced a 2-point shot to knot it up at 19, only for Miroslav Pašajlić to make a 2-point shot of his own for Riga to secure the win at 21-19.

Gill led the way for Canada with nine points and four rebounds.

WATCH | Canada takes on Riga:

Next up for the Canadians was the No. 5-ranked Futian team out of China in a must-win game after Riga locked up first-place in the pool with a 21-19 win earlier over the Chinese team.

Only the top two teams from each of the four groups make the knockout round stage.

After another tightly contested affair, Alex Johnson – who led Canada in scoring with seven points – put the Canadians ahead 18-17 late with a 2-point basket, before a free throw from Gill made it 19-17 to close out the game, eliminating Futian and sending Canada through to the quarterfinals.

WATCH | Canada faces Futian:

Canada will be in tough in its first game of the knockout stage when they face the No. 1-ranked Ub Huishan NE team from Serbia – a team that has won all three stops on the tour so far in the Utsunomiya Opener in April, Manila in May, and the Marseille tournament just last Sunday.

Live coverage of the Macau 3x3 event continues Sunday at 4:30 a.m. ET with live streaming available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Canada kicks off the quarterfinal slate with the first game of the day.

The next stop on the tour will