FIBA AmeriCup: Canadian women lock up World Cup berth in blowout
In what’s been a seamless transition from one good team to another, Canada has easily qualified for next year’s women’s World Cup of basketball.
Two holdovers from the team that was a quarter-finalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics — Montreal’s Nirra Fields and Miranda Ayim of London — led Canada to an easy 84-45 win over Brazil on Saturday night to give the national team a berth in the 2018 World Cup in Spain.
Fields and Kia Nurse of Hamilton each had 16 points and Ayim 15 as Canada won its fifth game in a row at the 10-team tournament in Buenos Aires. They will face either Argentina or Puerto Rico in Sunday’s gold medal game at the FIBA AmeriCup tournament, trying to reprise the unbeaten run from 2015 in Edmonton through the continental championship.
Canada had little trouble with Brazil, which had been a traditionally difficult foe up until the 2012 London Olympics. The senior women led 24-12 after a quarter, 41-22 at halftime and 67-32 through three quarters in the rout.
“It was fun to watch,” head coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “I think we had eight different people hit threes today, we had our bigs come up with nice plays. I just thought we played really well as a team.
“Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how we played for sure.”
Only six of the 12 team members are holdovers from the team that posted a top-eight finish at the 2016 Rio Games but there’s been little drop-off in the team’s success.
Nurse made three three-pointers and Fields made three as Canada overcame some shooting woes that had popped up during the preliminary round games. Ayim, MiahMarie Langlois of Windsor, Michelle Plouffe of Edmonton and Brampton’s Shay Colley also made three-pointers as Canada shot 11-for-23 from beyond the arc.
Just as important was that Canada committed a tournament-low eight turnovers against a typically aggressive Brazil defence. Canada also held Brazil to just 26 per cent shooting from the field and forced them to miss each of the nine three-pointers they attempted.
“This game felt really good,” said Ayim. “We’ve been working towards this moment throughout the group play and I feel like it finally clicked and we were playing the way we wanted to play.
“Brazil is always a great opponent, they come with a lot of passion, a lot of physicality. So to be able to handle that, it feels good.”
Canada will be making its fourth straight appearance at the world championships next summer and will be looking to improve on a fifth-place finish in 2014 in the Czech Republic.