BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (August 6, 2017) - The Senior Women's National Team defeated Cuba 81-35 Sunday evening in their opening game of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2017.

Nirra Fields led Canada with 18 points and five rebounds while Ruth Hamblin added 15 points and 10 rebounds. Jamie Scott also had 12 points and two rebounds in Canada’s win.

Click here for the box score.

In a rematch of the 2015 FIBA Americas Women's Championship, Canada took an early 28-8 lead over Cuba with Miranda Ayim hitting a buzzer beater to close the first quarter. Leading Cuba 50-18 at the half, Canada pulled away in the second half en route to a 46-point win.

With the win, Canada has now defeated Cuba six times in the past seven meetings at the FIBA Americas tournament.

Click here for the full team roster.

QUOTE

"Great to get the first game under our belt against a traditionally tough opponent in Cuba. There were a lot of question marks coming into the tournament in terms of our style of play and how we would integrate some new players.  I think we passed our first test. We worked on pushing the pace and tempo and thought we did a solid job of that in the first quarter and built on that throughout the game. This by no means is Cuba's best effort and we imagine we will see them again later in the tournament, but certainly happy with the win." - Lisa Thomaidis, Head Coach

UP NEXT

Canada continues group play tomorrow on Monday, August 7 against Puerto Rico at 8:05 PM ET. The game will be live streamed on FIBA's YouTube Channel. Click here for the complete tournament schedule.

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For more information, contact:

Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca

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