2021 Tokyo Olympics: Serbia defeats Canada in the first game of group play.

The Canadian Senior Women’s Basketball Team got underway earlier in the day and lost their first game to Serbia who are the defending EuroBasket champions. This game was not going to be easy, but Canada was going to show that they were going to be a medal threat this time around. They are ranked fourth in the world by FIBA. This was also their third Olympics qualifying, so there was veteran experience and some youth mixed in to make some noise.

QUICK GAME RECAP

Unfortunately, it did not go that way at all. Canada struggled to shoot the ball in the first half. Kia Nurse was struggling and the team only shot 28% from the field, but were still just lucky to be down by only eight points. In the second half, Canada forced some turnovers, and they led for a bit before Serbia regained the lead. In the fourth quarter, Team Canada had chances to make it a close game or tie it, but missed free throws, untimely turnovers were the downfall and Serbia was able to hang on and win by 4, for a final score of 72-68. Canada was led by Nirra Fields who scored 19 points and Sonja Vasic led Serbia with 16 points. Canada now has two must win games coming up against Korea and Spain if they want to advance to the knockout quarterfinals stage.

THOUGHTS

• Team Canada missed eight free throws that could’ve won them the game. They also shot 20.8% from three.
• Kim Gaucher did not play. I’m guessing she is out for health reasons, and will play sooner than later.
• Kia Nurse plays the most minutes out of any Team Canada player. That’s very interesting and something to note, because while Nurse is a pivotal player, I (in my opinion) wouldn’t play her heavy minutes. I would play more of the guards and try to make Miranda Ayim more of a scorer rather than a facilitator.
• Canada just did not play like themselves for a large majority of the game. It was just weird to see, because I’ve seen Canada play so much better than this. Frustrating loss for sure.

UP NEXT:

Canada faces Korea on July 28th at 9:00 pm EST time. Thank goodness, the game is on a reasonable time. This is also a must win game for Canada, otherwise they are out of the tournament.