Worst quarter ever dooms Canadian women’s basketball team

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Canada’s women’s basketball team barely qualified for the Paris Olympics and if they play the way they did on Monday moving forward, it’s not going to be a long stay in France.

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The 75-54 final score came about mostly because of one fateful frame.

After a solid start, Canada turned in what had to be the worst quarter in the program’s history, getting outscored 23-2 and committing 12 turnovers. Yes, you read that right.

Canada led 18-15 after one before everything completely fell apart. France’s defence picked up significantly, making every Canadian attempt to run an offensive set a significant chore.

Suddenly, a group that had precious little time together in the lead-up to the Olympics, looked completely out of sorts. Even though many of the Canadians have been playing together internationally for a while, some just arrived recently due to the WNBA season, while there are also some new faces.

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Head coach Victor Lapena told CBC during the broadcast all of the turnovers led to Canada losing its composure.

All 11 French players scored at least one basket, with only forwards Mariame Badiane (13) and Gabby Williams (12) hitting double figures.

Guards Kia Nurse and Shay Colley led Canada with 11 points apiece. Bridget Carleton had eight points and eight rebounds, and Kayla Alexander added 10 rebounds and six points.

Canada had 13 assists and 25 turnovers on the day (France had 21 assists and nine turnovers) and shot just 32.7% from the field.

France is ranked No. 7 in the world, two spots below Canada — which was the fourth-place finisher at the most recent FIBA World Cup — but looked to be in a different class than the visitors in the decisive quarter.

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Loaded with skill, size and shooting, France had the raucous crowd on its feet for much of the game.

The huge advantage, coupled with a surprising Nigeria win over Australia earlier in the day, left Canada playing only for point differential, which could come into play moving forward.

Only the top two of France, Canada, Australia and Nigeria advance automatically. The two best third-place finishers of the three groups in the tournament also advance to the quarterfinals (though one likely will face the Americans, who haven’t lost a single game in years, so it’s likely much better to claim one of those two auto spots).

Canada did manage to outscore France by a point in the third quarter, with guard Sami Hill playing particularly well.

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Canada only qualified for the Olympics because Spain beat Hungary by one point, allowing Canada to claim the third and final berth from that qualifying tournament. during which Canada had gone 1-2.

The team will have to play a lot more like it did in the other three quarters to give itself a chance to keep going. Either way, Thursday’s match with Australia will be a huge one for a program desperate to reach the podium after finishing ninth, seventh and eighth at the previous three Olympics.

Nigeria, which won an Olympic game for the first time since 2004, will look for another huge upset against France before taking on Canada in what could be a game with plenty on the line on Sunday.

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