Canada Basketball – SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (September 23, 2019) – Team Canada picked up their second win of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019 with a decisive 87-51 victory over Cuba on Monday evening. 

Click here for the box score.

For the second game in a row, Kayla Alexander recorded a double-double, with a game-high 23 points and 15 rebounds.  She also recorded two blocks, two assists and a steal in 26:04 minutes of action.  Sami Hill and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe had 12 points each, while Bridget Carleton recorded 10 points of her own in the win.  Cuba was led by Anisleidy Galindo who recorded 15 points in the loss.

An uncharacteristically slow start for the Canadians saw them trailing for much of the first quarter before Miah-Marie Langlois drained a fadeaway in the final few seconds of the frame to give Canada a slim 14-13 advantage after 10 minutes.

However, Canada came out firing to start the second and used a 10-0 run to build a 26-15 lead midway through the quarter.  Despite struggling from beyond the arc in the opening half, Canada carried a 35-27 advantage into halftime.

The third quarter belonged to Alexander, who scored six straight for Canada to open the second half, and 11 of her 23 points in the quarter to help pace the offence for the red and white. Leading by 10 points, 45-35, midway through the third, Hill knocked down a triple, followed by an Alexander layup as the Canadian lead grew to 15.  Just as they’d done for most of the game, Cuba refused to go down without a fight, as Canada entered the final quarter with a 16 point advantage, 59-43.

In the end, the Canadians proved too much for Cuba to handle, as Canada pulled away in the fourth quarter, on their way to the 36-point win.

Outrebounding Cuba 50-31, Canada found success in the paint as they outscored Cuba 52-16.  The Canadians also made Cuba pay for their mistakes, as 30 of Canada’s 87 points came off of turnovers, compared to just eight points for Cuba.

Entering the tournament as two-time defending FIBA AmeriCup champions, Canada has found a spot on the podium in seven of the last eight competitions dating back to the 2003 FIBA Americas Championship for Women in Culiacan, Mexico.

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019 begins with a Group Phase, where teams play round-robin format for four days. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019, where the top team of Group A will play the second team of Group B and the top team of Group B will play the second team of Group A. The winners of the semifinals will go-on to play for the continental title on September 29.  Click here for the competition schedule.

As part of the Women’s National Team Competition System, the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019 will qualify the top 8 teams to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments in November.

The FIBA Women’s Pre-Qualifying Tournaments in Americas will qualify the top four teams for the four global FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020, taking place in February 2020.  Canada will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with a top three finish in their group in the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020.

Click here for roster.

UP NEXT

Team Canada will face hosts Puerto Rico on Tuesday, September 24 at 8:00 PM ET. Fans in Canada can catch the game streaming live on DAZN.

QUOTES

“It was a bit of a rough start but I thought in the second half we really picked it up and started playing our game.  Our defence was really on point and we were playing well as a team.  I think our defence created a lot of offence for us and as a team we rebounded well. I think we played good team basketball tonight and can continue to build on that.” – Kayla Alexander

“I thought we had a bit of a slow start tonight.  Cuba was making a lot of perimeter shots that were giving us some difficulty.  Our fitness and depth wore them down and in the second half we came out firing and the offence got clicking a little better.” – Lisa Thomaidis

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For more information, contact:
Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca