Canada’s women need to re-focus for Brazil clash
Squad needs to win one of last two
In the immediacy of the moment, the anguish of how close they’ve come is naturally more on their minds than how far they’ve actually come.
“The loss,’’ admitted Canadian hoopster Natalie Anchonwa after Wednesday’s game against France, “is really hard. A close loss is always a tough loss. But we’ve got to refocus. The Olympics are just like any other FIBA tournament. It’s a long tournament. Game after game. There’s frustration, at this moment, yes. Definitely. But we learn from this, we put this in the archives and get on to the next one.’’
That would be against Brazil, on Friday, Canada’s best chance to nail down the one more win they need in Group B to advance to the quarter-finals of the women’s basketball tournament.
While these Canadians are proving harder to kill off than a bad rumour, all they have to show for three spirited performances is a single win, over Great Britain. They played Russia exceptionally tough in their opener and actually led most of the way before falling 58-53 in the fourth quarter.
Again Wednesday, in a scrappy 64-60 loss to France, the trademark resilience that helped them secure the final Olympic berth shone through. Birdie bashers from China, South Korea and Indonesia may have been expelled from the Games for not trying hard enough, but that accusation will never be levelled at this group.
“I thought,’’ said Anchonwa, “we showed our heart, our Canadian tenacity.’’
While the Canucks only actually led twice — by a single point each time — they stubbornly refused to become discouraged.
And when the emerging Anchonwa laid the ball in before being hacked, making the subsequent free throw, the deficit had been whittled to two points, 62-60, with 9.8 seconds remaining.
What sealed their fate on this day was poor shooting (43 per cent) and squandered opportunities.
“No threes and I don’t know how many lay-ups we missed,’’ sighed coach Allison McNeill. “I’d have to go back and look at the tape. But ... a lot. Everything was good, we just didn’t put the ball in the hoop. I don’t know what you can account to that. I’m sure you have to give a little bit to their length. They get to you quicker than some teams. So I think we had some open threes, but by the time we got those, they’re challenging a bit more than we’re used to.
“Some of the misses were just lack of concentration a little bit, or lack of finish a little bit. But I was happy with everything. The game plan, we executed it perfectly. The intensity ... we had all their sets down, we defended perfectly. We crashed the boards. We did a lot of really good things.’’
Wednesday’s result leaves the Canadians at 1-2 for four points in Group B. A win is worth two points and a loss, for some weird reason, one. By winning, France qualified for the quarter-finals. Canada has two group games left: Friday against Brazil and Sunday against Australia. Canada is ranked 11th in the world, while the Aussies are No. 2 and Brazil No. 6.
“In the end,’’ said Anchonwa, “we didn’t play a whole 40 minutes. Our defence definitely fuels this team. We’re a great defending team. We just didn’t execute on ... actually we did execute our offence. We just didn’t make shots.’’
Shona Thorburn led Canada with 17 points, followed by Anchonwa with 14, to go along with a teamhigh eight rebounds. The emergence of Anchonwa — a 19-year-old from Guelph, Ont., who plays for the University of Notre Dame — might be the big story on this feel-good team.
“I’m very proud of her,’’ said McNeill. “You’re going to have up and down games on the perimeter because you’ve got different matchups and different things. In the post, it’s pretty clear in our offence where she plays and what she can do out there. She’s kind of mastered that spot. She’s just really come on and played well beyond her years.’’
She’ll need to continue to do so against Brazil, which is essentially a must-win game. The good news is the Canadians are very familiar with the team.
“That is good, because at this point your mind is full of a lot of stuff,” McNeill said. “Brazil is a common foe. We’ve played them a lot, so it won’t be as tough a scout. They’re a lot like France — have good bigs, they’re athletic, play a lot more zone.’’
There may be a shift in Xs and Os but that heart, the tenacity Natalie Anchonwa spoke of, what lies at the heart of this improbable Canadian challenge, will be what they rely on now, as the chances dwindle.
That won’t change. That’s a given.