CANADA DEFEATS BRAZIL 84-45 IN THE FIBA WOMEN’S AMERICUP SEMIFINALS
Canada Basketball – CANADA SECURES SPOT IN SUNDAY’S FINAL, QUALIFIES FOR FIBA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL WORLD CUP 2018
| DATE | TIME | OPPONENT | LOCATION |
| August 12, 2017 | 5:35 PM ET | Brazil | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (August 12, 2017) – The Senior Women’s National Team defeated Brazil 84-45 in the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2017semifinals Saturday night. With the win, Canada advances to Sunday’s gold medal game where they will face the winner of the second semifinal between Argentina and Puerto Rico.
The victory also qualifies Canada for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 in Spain.
Nirra Fields and Kia Nurse each had a game high of 16 points while Miranda Ayim added 15 points and eight rebounds. Shay Colley and Michelle Plouffe also chipped in seven points each in Canada’s win.
Click here for the box score
Canada established a 24-12 lead after the first quarter. Leading Brazil 41-22 at the half, Canada pulled away in the second half en route to a 39-point win.
Click here for the full team roster.
The victory over Brazil was Canada’s second consecutive at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup (formerly FIBA Americas Championship for Women). In their previous meeting, Canada defeated Brazil 83-66 in the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship for Women, snapping a streak of six straight head-to-head victories for Brazil that began in 1999.
While the team will be focused on defending their title from 2015, Canada has also clinched a berth in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup (formerly FIBA World Championship for Women) in Spain from September 22-30, 2018.
The biggest international women’s basketball competition, the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup brings together the 16 best teams from across FIBA’s four regions – Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe.
Canada finished fifth in the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women(Istanbul and Ankara – Turkey). However, their highest finish on the world stage is a pair of bronze medals in 1986 (Vilnius, Minsk, Moscow – Soviet Union) and 1979 (Seoul – Korea).
QUOTES
“We’re really happy to be qualifying for our fourth consecutive world championships and that’s the first and foremost goal coming into these FIBA Americas tournaments. So to be heading into the final, we’re excited about that. It was fun to watch eight different players hit threes and see our bigs come up with some nice plays. I just thought we played really well as a team. We showed some good improvement from the last game we played and we’ll have to show some more improvement tomorrow in the final. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how we played.” – Lisa Thomaidis, Head Coach
“It was a really fun game to play. I feel like all the work we’ve been doing in the group play all came together tonight and we just need to continue on this road for the game tomorrow.” -Miranda Ayim
UP NEXT
Canada moves on to the finals and will face either Argentina or Puerto Rico on Sunday, August 13 at 8:35 PM ET. The game will be live streamed on FIBA’s YouTube Channel. Click here for the complete tournament schedule
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For more information, contact:
Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca