Canadian women’s basketball team knocked out of Olympics early

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Canada’s women’s basketball team never looked right and never played up to its immense potential at these Olympics.

Whether at these Games in France, or in qualifying earlier this year, a Canadian group loaded with experience, talent and up-and-comers, never put it all together.

As a result, following a 79-70 loss to Nigeria on Sunday — and it felt worse than that — they are going home early for the second Olympics in a row.

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Canada fell behind 12-2 early, rallied to lead by 10 in the second quarter and by four at halftime, before being sunk by another disastrous quarter — being outscored 23-5 by Nigeria.

Just to have a shot at advancing, Canada needed to win by 10 points and to see France beat Australia later in the day, but that result did not matter.

Canada had just missed advancing in Tokyo in 2021 after reaching the quarterfinals in the previous two Olympics, but had rallied with that impressive fourth-place finish at the World Cup. This summer, Victor Lapena’s group could not regain that winning formula.

And now the program shifts into a new era. In the fourth quarter Sunday, Lapena went mostly with his youngsters such as Syla Swords, who hasn’t played even NCAA basketball yet, Laeticia Amihere and Cassandre Prosper. Leader and four-time Olympian Natalie Achonwa has said this is it for her. Fellow front-court veteran Kayla Alexander has likely aged out and Kia Nurse struggled all tournament and will be 32 in 2028 at Los Angeles.

This team was expected to show better in France after its fourth-place World Cup finish. With several big names, some rising teenagers and recent WNBA draft picks, it was believed the Canadians had a shot against nearly any opponent.

But getting outscored 23-2 in a quarter by host France in the opener was a bad sign. Collapsing again in the third quarter on Sunday was the nail in the coffin for a team that played well in only three or four of 12 quarters at these Games.

Canada entered the Olympics ranked No. 5 in the world, but will likely plummet after this poor tournament.

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