Women through to basketball quarter-finals

TENERIFE, Spain Kia Nurse had a gamehigh 18 points and six assists as Canada earned a bye into the quarter-finals of the FIBA Women’s World Cup with a come-from-behind 71-60 win over France on Tuesday.

Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe added 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Canadians (3-0), who finished at the top of their pool. Canada will face either host Spain or Senegal Friday.

“We understand that winning he pool is great but there’s so much more to come,” Nurse said. “So to be able to put ourselves in this situation to go in, have two days off, give us a chance to be able to scout a little extra, get some practice in and work on things we want to get better at, it’s a great situation.”

Canada, ranked fifth in the world, trailed No. 3 France by 15 points in the first quarter and 10 points at the half. But the Canadians chipped away at the lead in the third quarter before taking the lead early in the fourth.

France hung around and tied the game at 55 with about five minutes left in the game before Canada put it away with a 15-0 run.

“I thought we settled into our defence a little bit more (in the second half), I thought we were way more aggressive, defending the ball a little bit better,” Canada head coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “Kia got some steals and deflections. It wasn’t a matter of changing anything, it was just a matter of playing our game.”

Shay Colley added 12 points for Canada while Natalie Achonwa had nine points and 10 boards.

Sandrine Gruda led France with 14 points, while Olivia Epoupa had 13 points and seven rebounds.

Canada improved its alltime record against France at the World Cup to 4-2 and got a measure of revenge against the team that knocked it out of the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“We have a lot of history with France and knew it was going to be a tough game, and this was one we wanted to get,” Thomaidis said. “At the end of the day, you have to win every single game.”