Canadian women a long way from Tokyo podium in basketball after digging a hole they can’t get out of

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This article was published 31/07/2021 (1549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The slow start had almost been overcome. Canada was creeping back into the game. And then it came, the onslaught that may have dashed an Olympic medal dream.

Spain, which had a strong first quarter, played seven minutes of wonderful basketball to begin the third — aggressive and swarming on defence, precise on offence — on the way to a 76-66 win over Canada.

That left the Canadians, who finished the preliminary round with a 1-2 record, waiting for the results of other games and hoping for some favourable arithmetic that would allow them to advance to next week’s knockout quarterfinals.

The two best third-place finishers from the three first-round groups advance to the quarters. Canada was waiting nervously to see what would happen in games involving France, Japan, Australia and Puerto Rico on Sunday and Monday.

Spain, 3-0, joined the United States, Belgium and China in the quarterfinals.

The game against Spain, Sunday morning in Tokyo, got away from Canada in the third quarter after it had cut a 10-point first-quarter deficit to six at the half. Spain began the quarter on a 9-0 run in just over two minutes, and stretched its lead to 20 before the period was six minutes old. The 20-13 scoring edge the Spaniards had in the quarter provided more than enough cushion. Canada’s start to the second half mirrored an equally slow start to the game; the Canadians trailed by 12 before the first quarter was nine minutes old.

Despite another Canadian rally — they cut the deficit to six points with about eight minutes to go — Spain was too poised, capitalizing on almost every turnover in the final five minutes.

Canada is hoping to at least match its top-eight finishes at the 2016 London and 2012 Rio Olympics and came into these Games with a podium-or-bust mentality. An opening-game loss to Serbia was crucial, though, and made the climb to the knockout stages steep.

Canada rebounded from that loss with an impressive win over South Korea but Spain, ranked No. 3 in the world and the defending Olympic silver medallist, was just too strong. Six-foot-five centre Astou Ndour was dominant on offence with 20 points and added 11 rebounds. Her rim protection kept Canada from attacking in the paint.

Spain’s efficiency on offence — 29 assists on 33 made baskets — was almost off the charts.

Kia Nurse led Canada with 14 points and emerging star Laeticia Amihere had 10 for Canada, which shot just 37 per cent from the field. Bridget Carleton, who had another tremendous defensive game, had nine points for Canada, as did Nirra Fields.

The Canadians are trying to take advantage one of the most athletic rosters they’ve ever had with an up tempo style of play, a conscious strategic decision they made in the wake of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

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“I think we’re continuing to improve in that area, it’s still a big area of growth for this team, it’s a style of play that we have not emphasized in the past but it’s leveraging the talents and abilities of the personnel that we have,” Thomaidis said before the game. “We have to keep pushing in that direction because great things are going to happen.”

The Canadians, though, dug themselves a double-digit first-half hole by committing too many turnovers. They had six in the first quarter alone — 14 for the game — and Spain scored 26 points off those turnovers.

“We want to play with pace, we want to play with speed and certainly those decisions when we play that way are going to be critical between beating good teams and beating great teams, capitalizing on the advantages that we do get if we want to play with pace,” Thomaidis said.

Saturday was the third straight time Spain had beaten Canada at a significant global tournament after victories in the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 World Cup.

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