UDINE, ITALY (July 30, 2017) - The U19 Women's National Team defeated Japan 67-60 in the bronze medal game at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup in Italy. With this win, Canada secures the team's highest finish at a FIBA U19 World Cup tournament.

Canada's previous highest finish at this level was fourth place at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women (Bangkok, Thailand).  

Laeticia Amihere (Mississauga, ON) led Canada with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Hailey Brown (Hamilton, ON) added 12 points and five rebounds. Hanna Hall (Hamilton, ON) also had 10 points and three rebounds in Canada's historic win.

Click here for the box score.

Canada established a 14-10 lead in the first quarter after Hall hit a buzzer-beating three pointer. Canada would maintain a 33-27 lead at the half with Alyssa Jerome (Toronto, ON) also hitting a three point buzzer-beater. Leading Japan 33-27 into the second half, Kendra Van Leeuwen (Brantford, ON) would continue trend, hitting a three-point buzzer beater of her own to give Canada a 50-45 lead in the third.  Despite a back-and-forth final quarter, Canada would hold on for a 67-60 victory.

This is Canada's first podium finish at an international FIBA event since 2012 when the team earned bronze at the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

Click here for the full team roster.

QUOTES

"Incredibly proud of this team and this accomplishment. Following a tough loss last night, it sometimes hard to bounce back within a day. But our girls showed tremendous resilience, pride and determination to show up ready to go today. We did a tremendous job defending Japan and that really fed into our offensive game. We got back to moving and sharing the ball, playing inside outside. It truly was a complete team effort to bring home the bronze medal. I'm extremely proud of this accomplishment for these athletes. They have worked so hard, put so much time and effort into accomplishing it and they one hundred percent earned it." - Carly Clarke, Head Coach

"We are so happy to be leaving here with the bronze medal. It was a tough game as Japan put up a really great battle. We all wanted to leave here with a medal, so we worked really hard to do that. It couldn't have been done without all the support that we had from our coaches, to our managers, to our attachés. It was all a great team effort, everyone was so connected and it showed in this final game." - Alyssa Jerome, Captain

UP NEXT

The Senior Women's National Team competes at the FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2017  in Buenos Aires, Argentina from August 6-13, 2017. Canada tips-off tournament play against Cuba on Sunday, August 6 at 5:45 PM ET.  The game  will be live streamed on our Facebook Page. Click here for the complete tournament schedule.

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For more information, contact:
Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca

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