Canadian women bow out to Spain, fall short of goal

TENERIFE, Spain — The Canadian women’s basketball team simply couldn’t stop the home side’s run in the fourth quarter on Friday.

As a result, Canada fell short of its goal of advancing to the FIBA World Cup semifinals.

Second-ranked Spain, the host team, went on a 19-0 run to open the fourth and beat No. 5ranked Canada 68-53 in the final quarterfinal.

All told, Spain outscored Canada 21-3 in the fourth quarter. Shay Colley’s free throw with 1:44 left finally put Canada on the board.

“I thought we gave ourselves a chance,” Canada coach Lisa Thomaidis said.

“Unfortunately, there was a lid on the basket in the fourth quarter for us. We had a lead going in, got shots that we normally make, and unfortunately they didn’t go for us.”

It was the second quarterfinal loss in a row for Canada at the World Cup, which is held every four years. Canada hasn’t advanced to the semis since 1986.

It marked the fourth major competition (Olympics, World Cup) in a row in which Canada has lost in the quarterfinals.

Canada went 3-0 in the opening round to earn a direct berth to the quarters, but drew a tough opponent in Spain, which won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“I thought we battled hard,” Thomaidis said. “I said we can be disappointed with the result but not with the effort . . . . There’s a reason why they’re the world’s No. 2.”

Spain will face Australia in the semifinals today. Upstart Belgium will take on top-ranked United States in the other semifinal.

Canada will face China in a classification game. The best Canada can finish is fifth.

Canadian star Kia Nurse led the team with 15 points despite struggling in the first half, going 1-for-9 from the field. Colley had 13 points.