BANGKOK, Thailand – The name of the Canadian National Anthem “Oh Canada” was the same words being used as a question after the conclusion of the 81-46 beat down at the hands of their dominate cross-boarder nemesis the United States. This game, which was supposed to be a next step for Canada basketball, became another baby step in the building of their women’s program at the youth level.
With the rise of men’s basketball in Canada with the numerous NBA draft choices and their recent u19 World Cup win in Cairo, the National Program now has enough talent to make an impact at the 2019 FIBA World Cup and possibly qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The same can be said of the Canadian Women’s National team with all their WNBA and international players on call. But to all observers of North American youth basketball, more is expected of the women’s youth national teams since everyone sees the talent coming down to the USA for a variety of scholastic/non-scholastic team competitions and tournaments then eventually collegiate careers.
The USA came out in a full court pressure defense against the Canadians and never let up until halftime to seal the game with a 50-16 score. Both teams have numerous NCAA college players and incoming freshman with Canada sporting 9 of their 12 ready to play college basketball in the fall. Many of their future USA college coaches were here to watch them play. This game wasn’t pretty.
USA Coach Jeff Walz, who lamented about the lack of good shooting in a round of 16 79-61 win against Germany win, saw the USA team hit 50% of their shots against Canada.
When asked about the expectations for the Canadian women’s youth teams even U19 head coach Claire Meadows knew the big picture answer – filling the Women’s Senior National Team pipeline.
Competition at the FIBA World Championship levels in U17 and U19 varies from year to year and where you place in a pool and cross over can be a challenging. Canada usually faces either a power like the USA or Australia in the quaterfinals round which makes it more important to craft a roster at the U16s that can compete against everyone except the USA.
The USA won the 2017 FIBA America beating Canada in a very physical final 91-46. Everyone expected a closer game with all the athletes on this new-look Canadian roster. That team featured this year’s players: Sarah Te-Biasu, Aaliyah Edwards, Merissah Russell, Yvonne Ejim and Brynn Masikewich.
A year ago Team USA beat Canada in the FIBA Americas U18s final 84-60 in another rout and many of the expected 2017 stars surprisingly didn’t play up. After the loss, Canada proceeded to replace the entire team except for the starters: Justina King, Taya Hanson, Nyia Becker Roxane Mokolo and Christina Morra. This trip King, Hanson and Morra returned. Faith Dut and Micah Dennis are the only two new players on this roster.
NEXT GAME: Canada rebounded from the rough USA loss to grab a very important 62-59 win over a scrappy and smaller Japan squad to move into the 5th place consolation game against China. While not the medal round finish, which is the goal of each Federation, this weaker U19 field was an opportunity to get a medal.
NOTE: The USA beat Canada 87-37 this past June for the FIBA Americas U16 title. It was no surprise as Canada had an average height of only 5-11 while missing a number of top youth players who could be playing multiple FIBA age competitions like players do on European rosters. Look for Edwards, Russell and Ejim to eventually make the Senior National Team filling bottom roster spots soon. Canada can not afford to slow-play its talent.
SEMIFINALS: SCARE The evening semifinals nightcap had the USA in the closest game of the tournament outlasting a skilled and physical Belgium team 67-59. This is the same team that won the FIBA U18 Euros last summer and features many experienced players. Some observers thought this possibly could have been the final game had the brackets been different.
Team USA jumped out in front and had to work hard on every possession defensively to grab a 33-26 halftime lead. This was a slugfest of physical play inside and around the basket as the USA held single digit leads through the fourth quarter before a Belgium 12-2 run from 7:01 until the 3:16 mark. They ultimately trailed 58-59 on failures to convert offensively. It took a Rhyne Howard 3 with 2:52 and a Paige Beuckers floater with 2:02 to get the lead and the eventual win. The USA took only 4 3-point shots (making 2) compared to 6 for 26 from Belgium. The US was also out-rebounded by the Belgian Cats 44-37.
Look for the same type of game tomorrow as the USA looks for more gold. Australia and Spain entered their semifinal game as a toss-up but if they game got physical (as many of these games have turned out to be) the edge would go to the Aussies. In the end it did as they held on to beat Spain 64-55 and move into the Gold Medal game against the USA.
MEDALS: Belgium will face Spain in the bronze medal game in a Euro clash. Canada goes against China for 5th place while a very surprising Mali team goes against Japan for 7th to give this African federation its highest finish at the FIBA youth level.
