Canada first team in Final with 27-point win over Argentina

GUANAJUATO (México) – Canada cruised to a spot in the Final of the FIBA U16 Americas Women’s Championship after a major win over Argentina on Saturday evening at the Fair Dome in Leon.

After Canada jumped out to a 10-0 start, holding Argentina scoreless for the first five minutes of action, Argentina scored six unanswered of their own to claw back.

Unfortunate for the Argentinian side, Canada’s offensive prowess was too much to handle as Canada would finish the first quarter with 25 points while holding Argentina to 10.

Though Argentina picked up their defensive game holding Canada to just 11 points in the second quarter, Canada returned the favor and kept Argentina to only six.

Cassandre Prosper was well on her way to a double-double going into halftime with 7 points and 9 rebounds, while Delaney Gibb added 9 points and Jada Bediako added 8 of her own combining for 24 of Canada’s 36 points.

The third quarter saw Canada jump to their biggest lead of the game of 25 points, but even despite the gap Argentina kept in the game keeping the scoring in quarter within three points, with Canada just slightly outscoring their opponent 18-15.

Delfina Cergneux, one of Argentina’s key players throughout the tournament, helped keep her team in the game with her play off the boards as well as driving to the basket with 4 points and 1 rebound in the 4 minutes she played in the quarter.

Argentina made it difficult for Canada to shoot from beyond the arc with their closeout defense, holding Canada to a mere 4.7 percent shooting from 3-point range, going 1 of 21, but second chance points and points from turnover combined allowed Canada to put up 49 points against Argentina’s 16.

The bench players made an impact on both teams, rotating fresh legs onto the court often to try and keep up with the back and forth fast pace of the game, with each bench contributing over 26 points, but Canada’s lead jumped to 30 points in the fourth and Argentina couldn’t close the gap against their fast break offense and domination in the paint.

Canada secured a spot in the Final with the 74-47 win, while Argentina will move to the bronze medal game after the loss. Gianella Espedale led all Argentina scorers with 11 points, the only player on her team to score in double figures.

As for Canada, Prosper finished with a double-double once again with 13 points and 13 rebounds, while Gibb, Bediako and Marina Radocaj all scored 14 points in the win.

“We started the game off with really hard defense, we got lots of steals, lots of transition layups, we moved the ball very well, we just did very well in general,” said Radocaj.

FIBA