| FINAL STANDINGS 1. United States 2. Japan 3. France 4. Serbia 5. China 6. Spain 7. Belgium 8. Australia 9. CANADA 10. South Korea 11. Nigeria 12. Puerto Rico | CANADIANS Natalie Achonwa (Guelph, Ont.) Kayla Alexander (Milton, Ont.) Laeticia Amihere (Mississauga, Ont.) Miranda Ayim (London, Ont.) Bridget Carleton (Chatham, Ont.) Shay Colley (Brampton, Ont.) Aaliyah Edwards (Kingston, Ont.) Nirra Fields (Montreal, Que.) Kim Gaucher (Mission, B.C.) Kia Nurse (Hamilton, Ont.) Shaina Pellington (Pickering, Ont.) Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe (Toronto, Ont.) Sami Hill (Toronto, Ont.) – alternate Aislinn Konig (Surrey, B.C.) – alternate Merissah Russell (Ottawa, Ont.) – alternate Jamie Scott (Pasco, Washington) – alternate Lisa Thomaidis – coach Steve Baur – assistant Carly Clarke – assistant |
| POOL A | SPN | SER | CAN | KOR | Record | ||
| Spain | —– | 85-70 | 76-66 | 73-69 | (3-0) | ||
| Serbia | 70-85 | —– | 72-68 | 65-61 | (2-1) | ||
| Canada | 66-76 | 68-72 | —– | 74-53 | (1-2) | ||
| South Korea | 69-73 | 61-65 | 53-74 | —– | (0-3) | ||
| POOL B | USA | JPN | FRA | NGR | Record | ||
| United States | —– | 86-69 | 93-82 | 81-72 | (3-0) | ||
| Japan | 69-86 | —– | 74-70 | 102-83 | (2-1) | ||
| France | 82-93 | 70-74 | —– | 87-62 | (1-2) | ||
| Nigeria | 72-81 | 83-102 | 62-87 | —– | (0-3) | ||
| POOL C | CHN | BEL | AUS | PUR | Record | ||
| China | —– | 74-62 | 76-74 | 97-55 | (3-0) | ||
| Belgium | 62-74 | —– | 85-70 | 87-52 | (2-1) | ||
| Australia | 74-76 | 70-85 | —– | 96-69 | (1-2) | ||
| Puerto Rico | 55-97 | 52-87 | 69-96 | —– | (0-3) |
| QF | Serbia 77 China 70 | |
| QF | United States 79 Australia 55 | |
| QF | Japan 86 Belgium 85 | |
| QF | France 67 Spain 64 | |
| Semi | United States 79 Serbia 59 | |
| Semi | Japan 87 France 71 | |
| Bronze | France 91 Serbia 76 | |
| Final | United States 90 Japan 75 |
In their opener, Canada dropped a 72-68 decision to Serbia. Serbia led 16-13 after one quarter and 36-28 at the half. The score was knotted at 45 after three quarters. Serbia opened the final frame with a 5-0 run but Canada rallied to a 54-53 lead with 6:31 to play on a layup by Nirra Fields and a pull-up jumper by Bridget Carleton. Canada knotted the score a layup by Kia Nurse with 4:25 to play but Serbia exploded with a 9-2 run on a trio of treys, including a pair by Ana Dabovic. Fields answered with a trey to draw Canada within four with 2:18 to play. Fields notched another trey to trim the margin to two with 51 seconds on the clock. But Jelena Brooks replied with a bucket. A Kia Nurse free throw on a technical made it a three-point game. A video review gave Canada the ball with 13.6 seconds to play. Shaina Pellington notched a free throw to draw Canada within 2 but Dabovic garnered a layup with 2 seconds remaining to ice the win for Serbia. “We want to win every game we play,” coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “I thought we had a slow start and got things turned around in the second half, built a lead and then couldn’t put them away. We know they can hit clutch threes and they did that at the right time. We did a lot of really solid things [in the game]. We turned them over 28 times, I was really happy with that, but at the end of the day we’re still disappointed in the loss.” Fields said “it was a great game overall. We picked it up in the third quarter, which we’ve been doing a great job [of] since playing together. We made some adjustments and we got into a close game… We’re very confident going into the next games, knowing that our defence is key.” Thomaidis said of Canada’s first half shot selection that “I thought the shots were okay. I thought the way we were getting them wasn’t great. I thought the ball did stick. We didn’t have great ball movement. Having said that, we were taking shots we can make. That turned around in the second half. The quality wasn’t terrible, but it certainly could have been better. … [With] our style of play, we want to get out, be dynamic and I think we slowed the ball down at times and played into their hands.” Kia Nurse said “I think we did a better job with our defence and just leaning into that and understanding that we were turning them over pretty well – a couple of steals here and there and some easy baskets. We did a better job of that and our communication was better.” Thomaidis said “we’re not going to make any excuses for sure, it’s been 17 months since we played a game together. But we’ve been working hard and doing what we can even though we’ve been remote for that amount of time. We’re a team that does have a lot of experience playing together and there’s no second chances here. … We’ll get it turned around. I think the second half was a good indication of how we want to play and we just have to do that in our next game.” Sonja Vasic paced Serbia with 16 on 4-7 from the floor, 2-3 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 3 boards and 3 assists. Yvonne Anderson added 12 on 2-3 from the floor, 1-1 from the arc, 5-6 from the line, 5 boards and 3 assists. Ana Dabovic notched 11 on 2-4 from the floor, 2-2 from the arc, 1-1 from the line, 6 boards and 5 assists. Aleksandra Crvendakic scored 10 on 2-6 from the floor, 2-5 from the arc, 3 boards and 5 assists. Tina Krajisnik added 10 on 4-8 from the floor, 2-4 from the line and 4 boards. Jelena Brooks scored 9 on 3-5 from the floor, 1-4 from the arc and 3 boards. Dragana Stankovic added 4 on 1-2 from the floor, 2-2 from the line, 2 boards and 2 assists, while Nevena Jovanovic, Dajana Butulija and Maja Skoric were scoreless. Jovanovic nabbed 5 boards and pilfered 2 balls. Angela Dugalic and Sasa Cado did not play. Serbia (coached by Marina Maljkovic, assisted by Milos Paden and Vladimir Vuksanovic) hit 26-52 overall, 18-35 (.514) from the floor, 8-17 (.471) from the arc and 12-15 (.800) from the line, while garnering 34 boards, including 6 on the offensive glass, 21 assists, 20 fouls, 28 turnovers, 6 steals and 2 blocks. Nirra Fields paced Canada with 19 on 6-8 from the floor, 2-6 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 4 boards, 3 assists and 4 steals. Kia Nurse added 16 on 5-13 from the floor, 1-5 from the arc, 3-3 from the line, 6 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. Shay Colley notched 12 on 1-2 from the floor, 2-3 from the arc and 4-4 from the line. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe scored 8 on 2-3 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 4-6 from the line and 2 boards. Bridget Carleton added 7 on 3-4 from the floor, 0-6 from the arc, 1-4 from the line, 5 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Shaina Pellington scored 2 on 0-1 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc and 2-4 from the line. Miranda Ayim added 2 on 1-1 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc and 2 assists. Laeticia Amihere scored 2 on 1-4 from the floor and 3 boards, while Natalie Achonwa, Kayla Alexander and Aaliyah Edwards were scoreless and Kim Gaucher did not play. Achonwa nabbed 2 boards, dished 5 assists and pilfered 3 balls. Canada hit 24-63 (.381) overall, 19-39 (.487) from the floor, 5-24 (.208) from the arc and 15-23 (.652) from the line, while garnering 28 boards, including 9 on the offensive glass, 18 assists, 16 turnovers, 15 steals and 21 fouls.
Canada evened its record at (1-1) by dusting South Korea 74-53 after leading 16-5, 33-28 and 49-39 at the quarters. Natalie Achonwa opened the second half with a bucket that ignited a 6-0 run, while holding Korea with a field goal until the 5:10 mark of the third quarter. A hook shot from Miranda Ayim gave Canada a nine-point advantage, 43-34 with 3:15 remaining. Korea drew within 52-45 with 7:10 to play but Canada closed out the affair with a 22-8 run. “It was a great game,” said Bridget Carleton. “Obviously it was important for us to get that W. We treated it as a must-win and that’s what we were able to do with 40 minutes of good basketball, our style of basketball.” Coach Lisa Thomaidis said Natalie Achonwa, who notched a double-double, was fantastic. I thought again, just her poise and her basketball IQ and her toughness really shone through and was key for us. … We certainly have a lot of respect for Korea, having played Spain so tightly a few days ago they had our attention,” Thomaidis said. “They’re such a quick, dynamic team, and are a lot to defend. I was really impressed with the effort our team put forth on the defensive end today.” Thomaidis was also delighted to see balanced scoring. “That was nice to see for sure. We do have a team that’s filled with talent and different people are going to have to step up on different occasions. We certainly have our vets who always put in a solid performance, and if we can get a couple extras from players off the bench, that’s really important in tournaments like this. I was really pleased. We’re definitely taking a step in the right direction, improving off of the other day. … We were building off the momentum we created in the second half of our game against Serbia. We wanted to bring that forward into today. Our goal is to play 40 minutes of Canada basketball and I thought we got closer to that today.” Natalie Achonwa said generating second chances on offensive boards “was part of an emphasis that we had in our scouting report going into the game. Making sure that we were executing, and the focus was putting the ball in the paint, throwing it into our fours and fives, getting post touches and working from there. I think our guards did a good job finding us, but also that our guards did a great job being big guards. Taking it to the rim, Bridget had a lot of and-1 takes, physical takes. I think that was the key of the game, the emphasis on how much bigger we are, how much stronger we are and I think we executed it today.” Carleton said “it starts with our defence, our tenacious aggressiveness on and off the ball, flying around and just playing together. And that’s what translates into transition and easier looks on the offensive end, and everyone touching the ball and (the ball) is moving. We get our energy from our defence. So that’s what we pride ourselves in. … We treated it as a must-win. Essentially, that’s what it was for us. Every game is the most important. So, that’s what we were focused on, beating Korea, and then we’ll do the same thing with Spain.” Thomaidis said “we’ve got to be a little bit sharper. We want to play with pace, we want to play with speed. And our decision-making will be the critical difference between beating good teams and great teams.” Bridget Carleton paced Canada with 18 on 5-6 from the floor, 1-5 from the arc, 5-5 from the line, 7 boards and 4 assists. Natalie Achonwa added 14 on 7-15 from the floor, 10 boards and 5 assists. Kayla Alexander notched 10 on 4-7 from the floor, 2-2 from the line and 4 boards. Kia Nurse scored 9 on 1-7 from the floor, 2-4 from the arc, 1-2 from the line and 4 boards. Shay Colley added 9 on 3-7 from the floor, 0-3 from the arc, 3-3 from the line and 7 boards. Nirra Fields notched 6 on 1-3 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 1-2 from the line, 3 boards and 2 assists. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe scored 4 on 1-3 from the floor, 2-5 from the line and 2 boards. Miranda Ayim added 2 on 1-3 from the floor, 6 boards and 3 assists. Laeticia Amihere scored 2 on 1-6 from the floor and boards, while Shaina Pellington, Aaliyah Edwards and Kim Gaucher were scoreless. Canada hit 28-72 (.389) overall, 24-58 (.414) from the floor, 4-14 (.286) from the arc and 14-19 (.737) from the line, while garnering 54 boards, including 22 on the offensive glass, 18 assists, 12 fouls, 7 turnovers, 3 steals and 5 blocks. Ji Su Park paced South Korea with 15 on 7-12 from the floor, 1-2 from the line, 11 boards, 2 assists and 5 blocks. Leeseul Kang added 11 on 4-12 from the floor, 3-9 from the arc and 4 boards. Danbi Kim notched 11 on 5-14 from the floor, 0-5 from the arc, 1-1 from the line, 4 boards and 3 assists. Jihyun Park added 6 on 2-7 from the floor, 2-4 from the arc and 2 boards. An Jin scored 4 on 2-3 from the floor and 2 boards. Jihyun Shin notched 2 on 1-5 from the floor and 3 assists. Yebin Yoon added 2 on 0-4 from the floor, 0-3 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 2 boards and 3 assists. Hyejin Park scored 2 on 1-7 from the floor, 0-3 from the arc, 2 boards and 2 assists. Hyeyoon Bae and Heji An were scoreless, while Jung Eun Kim and Eomji Jan did not play. South Korea (coached by Jooweon Chun, assisted by Mi Sun Lee) hit 22-64 (.344) overall, 17-38 (.447) from the floor, 5-26 (.192) from the arc and 4-5 from the line, while garnering 32 boards, including 9 on the offensive glass, 15 assists, 20 fouls, 10 turnovers, 2 steals and 6 blocks.
Canada closed out pool play with a 76-66 loss to Spain after trailing 23-13, 40-34 and 60-47 at the quarters. With the loss, Canada was compelled to rely on the outcome of other 3rd-place finishers and point differentials in order to qualify for the quarterfinals. They failed, however, on that score. “Certainly not the outcome we were looking for and now we’ll have to sit back and wait,” coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “We wanted to take matters into our own hands. We won two of four quarters [today] and unfortunately we just dug ourselves into too big of a hole to get out of.” Kia Nurse attributed the loss to a “slow start in the first, slow start in the third and that was probably the difference in the game. We showed a lot of fight, we showed a lot of heart and unfortunately now we’ve just got to wait.” Spain broke to a 9-3 lead. Canada rallied to within 11-9 but Spain closed the first quarter with a 12-4 run. “We talked about starting with intensity from the jump,” Laeticia Amihere said. “I think we lacked that a little bit. We got that spark at the end, where we were starting to go down. I think we need that for 40 minutes. It’s the Olympics. It’s really hard to start slow and win the game.” Spain opened the second half with a 9-0 run and a trey by Critina Ouvina capped an 18-4 run and gave the Spaniards a 20-point lead. “I think we lost some of our defensive intensity to start the third for whatever reason,” Thomaidis said. “You can’t let Spain get comfortable and they got comfortable a little bit. We tried to stop the bleeding right away, we had some good looks, but they just didn’t go down. Sometimes that’s how it goes.” Canada rallied no closer than six in the final quarter and Spain invariably had a response with a trey, or benefited from a Canadian turnover. “I thought our team played with a ton of heart to get back in there, we cut it down to a manageable margin,” Thomaidis said. “They hit some key shots in that time to extend it. [We’re] just disappointed [in the loss].” Natalie Achonwa said “at the start of the first and the third quarter we didn’t have that defensive intensity that Canada is used to and Spain took full advantage of that. … We approach every game the same way. Regardless of who we’re playing, Canada Basketball plays defence, and we didn’t do that. We didn’t bring what we needed to do in a Canada jersey.” Bridget Carleton said “it starts on the defensive end for us. That’s a choice we have to make and we weren’t able to do that today. … We need to be a great team for 40 minutes to win at this level. There’s no way to explain it. We’re not happy about it. We believed in ourselves, and just weren’t able to put it together.” Astou Ndour paced Spain with 20 on 9-10 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 2-2 from the line, 11 boards, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Cristina Ouvina added 15 on 4-7 from the floor, 2-3 from the arc, 1-1 from the line, 2 boards and 7 assists. Alba Torrens notched 12 on 3-8 from the floor, 2-2 from the arc, 4 boards and 4 assists. Queralt Casas scored 8 on 4-5 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 3 boards and 5 assists. Laura Gil added 8 on 4-6 from the floor, 7 boards, 5 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks. Raquel Carrera notched 6 on 2-3 from the floor and 2-2 from the line. Silvia Dominguez scored 4 on 2-7 from the floor, 0-2 from the arc, 0-1 from the line and 2 assists. Maite Cazorla added 2 on 1-1 from the floor and 3 steals. Laia Palau scored 1 on 1-2 from the line, while Maria Conde was scoreless, and Leonor Rodriguez and Tamara Abalde did not play. Spain (coached by Lucas Mondelo, assisted by Isaac Fernández and Madelen Urieta) hit 33-65 (.589) overall, 29-47 (.617) from the floor, 4-9 (.444) from the arc and 6-8 from the line, while garnering 34 boards, including 1 on the offensive glass, 29 assists, 19 fouls, 21 turnovers, 10 steals and 5 blocks. Kia Nurse paced Canada with 14 on 0-3 from the floor, 4-7 from the arc, 2-3 from the line, 2 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Natalie Achonwa added 11 on 3-10 from the floor, 5-6 from the line, 6 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Laeticia Amihere notched 10 on 5-10 from the floor, 0-1 from the line, 6 boards and 2 steals. Nirra Fields scored 9 on 3-9 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc, 3-4 from the line and 3 assists. Bridget Carleton added 9 on 3-7 from the floor, 1-2 from the arc, 0-1 from the line, 6 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals. Miranda Ayim scored 6 on 3-7 from the floor and 4 boards. Nayo Raincock Ekunwe added 4 on 2-5 from the floor and 6 boards. Shaina Pellington scored 3 on 0-2 from the floor, 0-1 from the arc and 3-4 from the line, while Shay Colley and Kayla Alexander were scoreless. Aaliyah Edwards and Kim Gaucher did not play. Canada hit 24-64 (.375) overall, 19-53 (.358) from the floor, 5-11 (.455) from the arc and 13-19 (.684) from the line, while garnering 34 boards, including 12 on the offensive glass, 14 assists, 18 fouls, 18 turnovers and 8 steals.
Canada finished (1-2) in pool play and failed to qualify for the quarterfinals on the basis of point differential in pool games involving the other two teams that finished with (1-2) records in their pools. Australia was +10 in its three pool games, while France was +10 and Canada was +7.
Quarterfinal pairings were determined by a draw, with each pool winner and the best 2nd-place team (by point differential) being placing in pot D, and the remaining qualifiers in pot E. Each quarterfinal pairing had a one team from pot D and one from pot E. Teams from the same pool could not be drawn against one another in the quarterfinal, while the 2nd-place team in pot D could not be drawn against the 3rd-place team from pot E. Seeds in pot D were China (1); United States (2); Spain (3); and the Belgium (4). In pot F were Japan (5); Serbia (6); Australia (7) and France (8).
The all-tournament team featured MVP Breanna Stewart (United States); A’ja Wilson (United States); Rui Machida (Japan); Sandrine Gruda (France); and Emma Meesseman (Belgium).
In the wake of Canada’s disappointing ninth-place finish at the Olympics, Canada Basketball essentially turfed senior women’s coach Lisa Thomaidis, saying that had “mutually agreed to part ways.” Canada Basketball executive vice-president, women’s high performance, Denise Dignard said in a statement that “after careful consideration and discussion with Lisa, we both recognize that this is a necessary step that out program must make in our continued pursuit of a place on the podium at the highest level of international competitions, as well as for Lisa, both personally and professionally. There is no doubt that Lisa has been instrumental in the long-term growth and success of this team, including leading us a program-best fourth in the FIBA World rankings.” Thomaidis said “leading our Canadian Senior Women’s National Team over the last nine years has been the highest honour and an absolute privilege. Our accomplishments have been historic and ones that took working with a true team to achieve.” Thomaidis assumed the women’s helm in 2013, after serving 12 years as an assistant to Allison McNeill. Thomaidis coached Canada to two consecutive Olympic appearances at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, as well as a fifth-place finish at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, the country’s highest ever finish at the tournament. Thomaidis-led teams also earned gold medals at the 2015 Pan American Games, the 2015 FIBA Americas Women’s Championship and the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2017. Her record at the national team helm was 83-44.
In January, 2022, Canada Basketball appoints 46-year-old Spanish assistant coach Victor Lapena as head coach of the national team and Seattle Storm (WNBA) coach Noelle Quinn as lead assistant. Lapena received a multi-year contract through the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I’m not a wizard, for sure,” Lapena told Canadian Press. “It’s not possible to say ‘Hey, come on, let’s go to play Victor Lapena basketball. No, this is very difficult.” Lapena called his appointment “a new adventure. … I will do my best to push the national team to the next level. … To know the players in one or two days is very difficult, but the information I’m going to receive about them is as a player, as a person, as a teammate. So, I will try to mix all the information I have to create good correlation between them, to play simple basketball, and to try to *have the best game plan to give problems to our rivals. In one month, we will see the result. It is very difficult, but I love it, this is what I love to enjoy and to live.” Lapena told CBC that “our challenge will be [to] give confidence to the stars of the future, while not forgetting all the good that has been done to get the team to this point. That to me is the cornerstone of building a winning team and culture.” Canada Basketball high performance director Denise Dignard said “post-Tokyo we did get some feedback from the athletes, and some valuable feedback. The priority was to find a head coach with top-level professional and international women’s basketball coaching experience and success, so we found a candidate in Victor that exceeds our expectations in both that pro and FIBA experience and success.” President and CEO Michael Bartlett said in making the selections, Canada Basketball “certainly, as we refined the criteria for our head coaching search, the pro and international women’s head coaching experience was really at the top of the list. And the reality of that situation is that the Canadian coaching tree right now isn’t deep with that experience.” That, of course, begged the question as to how Canadians could obtain such international experience if they weren’t being selected to coach the national program. Bartlett told CBC that ‘We’re going to double-down on our investment to make sure that we’re developing that next generation of Canadian coaches so that many years down the line when we’re doing another search like this, Canadians have international and pro head coaching jobs [and] are part of that candidate pool for us. … That’s on us as a federation to make sure of that, We can’t just expect people to achieve it. We have to invest in them to be able to do so.” Lapena, a native of Zaragoza, Spain, was head coach of the 2007 Spanish U17 team that finished 8th at the world championships and coached the U17 team to silver medals in 2012 and 2014. He was an assistant with the Spanish senior team that won silvers at the worlds in 2014 and 2016, and bronze in 2018. He also was an assistant with squad that won silver at the 2016 Olympic, and was head coach of the U17 that finished 7th at the worlds in 2016. Upon appointment to the helm of the Canadian senior women’s team, he was coach of Fenerbahçe in the Turkish Super League. Quinn, a native of Los Angeles, retired from the WNBA in 2018, joining the Storm as an assistant in 2019 and then as an associate in 2020. Quinn said Canada’s future success will rest on chemistry. “Everyone is in different areas playing on different clubs, and the biggest thing that I’ve learned coming in as a player and even as a young coach, sometimes as coaches you try to over analyze and think a lot, but simplicity is key. We have a lot of great people, a lot of great players, and that’s the easy part, bringing them all together, but strategically you can’t overdo it, you have to simplify things, play hard and be competitive and just go all out.”