Basketball fans should be in for a treat when Canada faces France in the quarterfinals of the Olympic women’s tournament Tuesday night (9:15 ET).
The first elimination game for both teams in Rio, it’s a game that’s sure to filled with the winning combination of bad blood and high-level basketball.
Both teams finished the group stage with identical 3-2 records, and match up fairly evenly across the board. Through five games, Canada is shooting 41.9 per cent from the field compared to France’s 43;Canada has grabbed 38.4 rebounds per game to France’s 39.4; Canada has scored 344 total points to France’s 344; both are averaging an identical 18.4 assists per game. And so on… Here are a few more things to watch for in Canada’s quarterfinal test tonight:
Player to Watch (Canada): Nirra Fields. Born in Montreal and, more recently, a standout player at UCLA, Fields has seen her minutes increase in each of Canada’s five games to this point. At point guard, she’s a tremendous rebounder for her position and is especially adept at driving to the basket where she’s shown an ability to finish at the rim, draw fouls, or dish the ball out to an open shooter. She led Canada in scoring during their final play in the group stage and should get an opportunity at another strong game against a France team with an exposable interior defense.
Player to Watch (France): Marine Johannes. The 21 year-old budding star struggled early in the tournament, notching four points total in her first three games. But, like Fields, she had something of a breakout performance in France’s final group stage game, hitting double digits in scoring and providing solid guard play in 22 minutes of action. She isn’t one of France’s go-to players yet at this stage of her career, but if she heats up it could create a headache for Canada. Johannes played alongside Team Canada star Kim Gaucher last season in the French League.
Canada will also have to keep an eye out for Olivia Epoupa on defense, who leads the tourney with a monster 3.2 steals per game thus far. Tamara Tatham leads all Canadians in the category with 1.8 per game, tied for 12th overall among all players.
The Number: Six. That’s how many members of Team Canada played in the French League last season:Kim Gaucher, Lizanne Murphy, Miranda Ayim, Shona Thorburn, and the Plouffe sisters, Katherine and Michelle. The familiarity with their opponents should help further propel the Canadians, who already count France as one of their biggest basketball rivals.
Despite France sitting five spots ahead of Canada in FIBA’s world rankings (flawed as they may be—they haven’t been officially updated since October of last year), the Canadians have held the edge as of late, winning all three of their last meetings, including a 71-63 victory in an exhibition game two weeks ahead of these Rio Games.
Canada is looking to bounce back from a 73-60 loss to Spain on Sunday night as they attempt to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 1984. They lost to the United States in the quarterfinals at the last Olympics in London, but are in a far better position to advance this time around.
“When we were here four years ago,” team captain Kim Gaucher told the media in Rio, “there was one person who’d been to the Olympics. We’ve got seven now…We know what it’s like to play in a quarterfinal now, and it’s a much better matchup. I think experience is huge (and) we have a lot more of it now.”
