BY ALISHA TATHAM
Just like the two teams coming in to tonight’s game, Tuesday’s quarterfinal between Canada and France was pretty evenly matched across the board. Neither team really had a glaring advantage over the other— it just came down to who made more shots down the stretch. France did.
Here are some more takeaways from Canada’s 68-63 quarterfinal loss:
Solid defence not enough
Canada, as always, continues to prove that they are a great defensive team. You can always count on their defensive effort, as they were the only team to keep USA from scoring 100+ points in a game in this tournament. Canada did a great job in forcing France to at least four or five shot clock violations, but unfortunately could not score on the ensuing possessions. In basketball, it’s all about possessions.
Slow start to the 2nd half
The offense for Canada is clicking when they have great ball movement and great spacing, which can lead to many open looks provided they can read the defense and play off each other.
During the first half— especially the first quarter— Canada looked great offensively. The ball movement was moving effectively and found its way into the hot hands of Miah-Marie Langlois and Kim Gaucher, who found open looks from beyond the arc. But by 2nd half that things took a turn for the worst, and Canada suddenly began to look stagnant on offense. For their part, France changed up the defense by using a zone to throw off Canada. And it worked. The Canadians simply could not execute against France’s zone defense and as a result were forced to put up tough shots and turned the ball over numerous times as France was able to capitalize on the other end of the floor.
Offensive drought continues
Canada’s offensive issues had already been apparent heading into the quarterfinal. They struggled offensively in both the USA game and the Spain game to finish pool play (both losses). Unfortunately, the scoring drought followed them into Tuesday’s game against France.
Other than the 1st quarter, Canada again struggled to find rhythm offensively and went cold from the floor. Kia Nurse, Canada’s standout player, shot 3 for 17 from the floor in 31 mins of play taking 32% of the Canada’s shots for the game. In the 3rd quarter Canada shot a dismal 18% from the field.
After losing this elimination game, the road ends here in Rio for Team Canada. This loss will be a tough pill to swallow, especially for the vets on this team had high hopes to finish their career in a Canada jersey with a medal hanging around their necks.
Alisha Tatham is a former member of Canada’s national basketball team and is covering the Rio Olympics for Sporstnet. Follow her on Twitter here and keep an eye out for her next Facebook Live broadcast on Sportsnet’s page