ISTANBUL – Canada is out of medal contention at the FIBA women’s world basketball championship after losing 63-52 to Australia in the quarter-finals Friday.
Miranda Ayim of London, Ont., led Canada with 11 points and seven rebounds while Edmonton’s Katherine Plouffe added 10 points and Kia Nurse of Hamilton scored eight.
Erin Phillips scored 16 points to lead the Australian attack.
Australia (4-0) led 26-20 before scoring 10 of the final 14 points of the half, capped by another three by Leilani Mitchell just before the buzzer to take a 36-24 advantage into the half.
Canada (2-3) got within 10 in the third quarter on consecutive three-pointers, but could get no closer as Phillips took over.
The loss means Canada will play in a classification game on Sunday. While they won’t be contending for a medal, the Canadians did meet their goal of finishing in the top eight.
They were 12th at the last world championship in 2010.
Canada finished third in its group phase after posting a win over Mozambique and losses to Turkey and France. A win over the Czech Republic in a qualification game on Wednesday earned them a spot in the quarter-final.
In other quarter-finals, Spain is facing China, host Turkey plays Serbia and the U.S. is taking on France.
– With files from The Associated Press
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