The Canadian women’s national team put a slow start behind them to win their opener at the 2016 Edmonton Grads International Classic.
Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe and Tamara Tatham led the way with 12 points each as Canada beat China 82-63 on Saturday in the first of three exhibition games in a lead up to the Rio Olympics.
READ MORE: Canadian women’s basketball team keeping close eye on men ahead of Rio
Canada had seven players score at least eight points each.
“That’s what this team is,” said captain Kim Gaucher. “We are so deep, it doesn’t matter who it is, it’s someone’s hot we can get them the ball. We have 12 people that are capable on other teams to put up 20 a night if they had to, so it’s really fun to play like that. We’re very unselfish and it’s really cool.”
Canada’s starting lineup included Miah-Marie Langlois, Gaucher, Raincock-Ekunwe, Tatham and Miranda Ayim. Natalie Achonwa, Kia Nurse, Ruth Hamblin and Jamie Weisner were a few of the regulars that didn’t dress for various reasons.
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Canada, ranked ninth in the world, trailed No. 8 China 15-13 after the first quarter, but got it together to start the second. The Canadians turned a two-point deficit into a 39-30 lead by halftime. Canada was ahead 69-45 after dominating the third quarter.
Shao Ting had a game-high 13 points for China.
Michelle Plouffe added 11 points for the Canadians, who made the Chinese pay for turning over the ball on many occasions. Canada scored 25 points off 17 China turnovers while the Chinese were limited to just eight points off 13 Canada turnovers.
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Canada also dominated on the glass, holding a 33-16 rebounding margin, including 13-3 on the offensive end.
“We have great rebounders, we get to hot spots and we’ve got a lot of height as well,” said Tatham. “They’re big, but our guards, sometimes, in different spots, are big too.”
The game was Canada’s first in a month, following a successful European exhibition tour in early June.
“We’ve been away and not in-game focus for a while, so it was good to work out the kinks and we had a better performance in the second half,” said coach Lisa Thomaidis.
Canada will host China in the second of the three-game set on Sunday.
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