Canadian Olympic women’s basketball team rebounds with win over Korea

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This article was published 28/07/2021 (1553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The traits Lisa Thomaidis needed from the Canadian women’s basketball team were often emphatically stated.

They had to be relentless, the coach would tell anyone who asked.

They needed to be dynamic, she’d say during the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics.

That, she contended, would give them a chance in any game they played.

She got all of that Wednesday night.

A dominant night on the boards — Canada outrebounded Korea 54-32 and had 22 offensive boards — and a defensive intensity that has been the team’s trademark, led Canada to a 74-53 win over Korea in what was a virtual must-win outing.

Canada is now 1-1 in its three-game preliminary round and still has to face Spain on Saturday. A win there would guarantee a spot in the quarterfinals. They could advance even with a defeat, but a loss to Korea would have been crippling.

Bridget Carleton led a balanced offence with 18 points, and four other Canadians had between nine and 14.

All 12 players got into the game as Thomaidis ran out wave after wave of groups to wear down the Koreans. It allowed Canada to keep up defensive pressure the entire game. Korea shot only 34 per cent from the field and 5-for-26 from three.

Canada, which shot just 5-for-24 from three-point range in its opening loss to Serbia, didn’t settle for too many outside shots despite the inside present of six-foot-six Ji Su Park.

After taking those 24 three-pointers Monday, Canada took only 15 Wednesday and played to their overall size advantage.

Using a rotating group of centres Natalie Achonwa. Laeticia Amihere and Kayla Alexander and forwards Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe and Miranda Ayim, Canada pounded the ball inside with success.

Canada got much better production from all three of their WNBAers, who looked uncomfortable at times in the opener.

Kia Nurse made a couple of three-pointers to loosen up the Korea defence; Carleton had a blocked shot and a runout layup on the game’s first defensive possession to set the tone; and Achonwa looked far more mobile in just her second game since suffering a strained knee ligament in a WNBA game last month, finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

That it took them a game to get used to their teammates, their roles and the FIBA game wasn’t all that surprising given the Canadian team hadn’t been together in 17 months because of travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“I think we’re very fortunate we have a group of athletes and staff that’s been together for a number of years now, have been through some big events — whether it be Olympic Games, world championships, AmeriCups,” Thomaidis said before the Games. “We do have that familiarity with each other, and I think that’s going to be really important considering we haven’t had a ton of time leading up to this.”

That familiarity showed in Canada’s ball movement, always a key to its offence. There wasn’t nearly as much reliance on late-clock jump shots as there was against the Serbs. It was as if Canada found a familiarity that was missing for the first half Monday.

“The cool thing about the sport is that basketball is basketball and not a lot of things change, no matter what system you’re in,” Nurse said even before the tournament began. “There’s only a few habits here or there in terms of defensive and offensive execution that are different, that we might have to change going back into the Olympic or national team setting.

“But at the same time, we’ve been doing this for a long time — I’ve been doing this since I was four — so you’ve got to dribble, pass and shoot. It’s not that hard, and your offensive sets are all pretty similar.”

Doug Smith is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @smithraps