CAN/FRA - Canadians finish a proud fifth

PUERTO MONTT (2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) - Canada has claimed fifth place at the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women, overcoming a tired France in the classification round.
 
Canada broke open the game in the second half to defeat France 70-52, led well by Nirra Fields with 18 points and 5 steals, and Michelle Plouffe with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Adja Konteh had 14 points for France, while Clarince Djaldi-Tabdi collected 12 points and 1o rebounds.

For Canada coach Rich Chambers, it was a fitting end to a tremendous tournament. "No Canadian team has ever won eight games at a world championship. While I was very disappointed to lose to Spain, on the day they were a much better team than us," he said.
 
While still rueing the Quarter-Finals loss to the Spaniards, Chambers put his team's accomplishments into perspective. "Over the course of the last 11 days, we have beaten the Asian champion, the European champion and the FIBA Americas champion, so it has been a tremendous accomplishment for our girls," he said.
 
Star centre Michelle Plouffe agreed. "We are very proud of the way we played today," she said. "After nine long days of basketball we have done Canada basketball proud.


"It is disappointing that we lost that quarter final, but we finished strong and finished fifth and we are proud of that. It was a great tournament, we played the best teams in the world and we played our best basketball."

For Plouffe, she also had the rare privilege of playing at world championship with her twin sister Katherine. "We have played together our whole lives, we went to school together," she said. "Last year we went to different colleges, and this year was our last chance to play together on this team so it was special."
 
Coach Chambers also paid tribute to France and the tournament itself. "My congratulations to France, we have admired them for many years," he said. "They play a wonderful brand of basketball that we have tried to emulate.

"I would also like to thank the tournament organising committee. We have had a wonderful time in Chile, and we have really enjoyed the high level of competition."

France coach Jerome Fournier and shooting guard Helena Akmouche also spoke to fiba.com after their last game in the tournament:

Helena Akmouche (France, player):
My team and I are really disappointed. During the world championship we played some really great basketball. We feel disappointed about it because we beat two teams that are playing tonight (in the medal round).
 
Jerome Fournier (France, coach):
I am very satisfied with this competition and very proud with my team, because they played very good basketball over a few days. Three of these days against Spain, Brazil and the USA we played at a level that we discovered, because we played at a level that we did not know that we had.



FIBA