SAITAMA, JAPAN —
Canada’s ladies’s basketball staff fell 76-66 to Spain on Sunday to wrap up its round-robin schedule on the Tokyo Olympics.
Kia Nurse had 14 factors for the Canadians (1-2).
Astou Ndour — dominant at each ends of the ground — poured in 20 factors for first-place Spain (3-0).
Serbia (1-1) and South Korea (0-2) performed in Sunday’s late recreation to wrap up Group A motion contained in the cavernous Saitama Tremendous Enviornment.
Canada now wants a South Korean upset in that one to complete second within the group. If that does not occur, the Canadians will wind up third and have some nervy hours upfront of Monday’s leads to the remainder of the ladies’s bracket to see if they’re going to transfer onto the quarterfinals.
The highest two groups in every of the event’s three teams advance to the beginning of the medal spherical Wednesday, together with the 2 greatest third-place squads.
Spain entered the ten a.m. native time begin having already booked a spot within the quarters. Canada departed the athletes’ village at 7:15 a.m. for the 40-kilometre bus trip to the venue north of Tokyo.
Canada misplaced its opener 72-68 to Serbia earlier than rebounding to beat South Korea 74-53.
The Canadians trailed 23-13 after Sunday’s first quarter because of some sloppy play early earlier than grinding its method again into the competition within the second, with Kia Nurse’s three-pointer simply earlier than half reducing the deficit to 40-34.
However the Spaniards went on a 9-0 run to go up by as many as 20 early within the third.
Nurse hit a 3 early within the fourth to chop the deficit it 60-52. The Canadians would get again to inside six a few instances, however could not shut the hole any additional and should now wait to study their fast destiny in Japan.
Ranked fourth on this planet by FIBA — the game’s governing physique — Canada completed seventh on the 2016 Rio Video games and has by no means medalled on the Olympics.
Presently sitting No. 3 within the rankings, Spain gained silver in Brazil 5 years in the past.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Aug. 1, 2021.
