CONSTANTA, Romania (Sept. 17, 2022) – The Canadian Women’s 3×3 Team went undefeated in Day 1 action at the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series Final in Constanta, Romania on Saturday.
Canada defeated France 21-12 behind a dominant 11-point performance from Michelle Plouffe, the No. 1 ranked women’s player. Plouffe also recorded nine highlights in the win. Katherine Plouffe added six points and five rebounds for Canada while France was led by a six-point effort from Hortense Limouzin.
“We feel fantastic,” Michelle Plouffe said after the game. We knew that we wanted to finish first in our pool so we’d have a little bit of a lighter load, hopefully, tomorrow. We played a great game against France. We knew we had to lock them down. They’re a great offensive team and I think we did a good job playing defence on them.”
Canada shot 13-for-18 from inside the arc and 4-for-5 from two-point range. In comparison, France made 9-of-13 attempts from inside, but were just 1-for-10 from deep.
While Limouzin opened the scoring with a drive to the basket, Canada quickly responded as M. Plouffe scored Canada’s first four points of the game to put Canada in front 4-1. After a free throw from K. Plouffe, Canada led 5-2 with 8:10 remaining.
Canada’s defensive effort was solid throughout. A block inside from Kacie Bosch and then a second block, this time from. K. Plouffe continued to stall France’s offence. After a two-point shot for M. Plouffe and then a drive and score inside from M. Plouffe, Canada led 10-5.
K. Plouffe and Marie Mané traded baskets, before M. Plouffe scored on a drive while being fouled, making the free throw to extend Canada’s lead to seven, 13-6 with 5:03 remaining.
After a two-point shot from Crozon, Canada led 15-6. A bucket for Guapo and then a drive from Limouzin made it 15-8 Canada. M. Plouffe scored a free throw and then K. Plouffe scored back-to-back buckets to maintain Canada’s seven-point lead.
K. Plouffe then assisted Bosch on a layup and the foul.With the score at 20-12 after Bosch’s layup, Bosch hit the free throw to give Canada the game 21-12 with 57.7 remaining.
In Canada’s first game of the day, they recorded a dominant 22-5 victory over host-team Romania behind a 10-point, eight-rebound effort from K. Plouffe and an eight-point, five-rebound performance from Crozon.
Canada shot 12-for-14 from two-point range, while Romania struggled to score, connecting on just 2-for-12 attempts inside the arc, and 1-of-10 attempts from deep.
The Canadians opened the scoring as M. Plouffe found K. Plouffe for an easy layup, but Romania responded with a free throw for Alina-Maria Podar to tie the game at one point apiece. After a bucket for Romania’s Teodora Manea, Crozon scored from deep to give Canada a 6-2 advantage with 7:56 remaining.
Manea scored for Romania again and then Ancuta Stoenescu connected on Romania’s lone two-pointer in the game to get within a point, 6-5, with 7:04 remaining. That bucket would be Romania’s final point of the game as Canada closed the game on a 16-0 run. K. Plouffe scored eight of the final 16 points of the game, including the layup that gave Canada a 20-5 advantage with 2:13 remaining. Crozon then hit a two-point shot to give Canada the 22-5 win with 1:01 remaining on the clock.
Up next for Canada is a meeting with Lithuania on Sunday, Sept. 18 at 9:05 a.m. ET.
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