AYSÉN, CHILE (June 16, 2019) – Canada defeated Ecuador 79-33 on Sunday afternoon to open the FIBA U16 Americas Championship 2019.

Click here for the box score.

With 10 points, six rebounds and three assists Avianna Thompson was Canada’s top performer of the game. Teah Stupar had a team-high of 11 points as well as seven rebounds and Isaline Alexander recorded eight points and 10 rebounds. Ecuador’s Blanca Quiñonez had 12 points.

A strong start saw Team Canada outscoring Ecuador right out the gate. The small 6-1 run at the beginning of the first quarter helped Canada to end the first quarter up 11-3.

Team Canada opened up the second quarter with a 9-0 run finding the most success in the paint. After entering halftime 28-11, the Canadians came back to outscore Ecuador 28-13 in the third quarter.

Matching the pace of their third quarter, The Canadians opened up the fourth with a 14-0 run and cruised to victory defeating Ecuador by 46 points.

The FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship 2019 will qualify the top-four teams to the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2020.

Canada is in Group B along with Ecuador, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Click here for the full tournament schedule.

Canada earned a silver medal at the FIBA U16 Women's Americas Championship 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  This will be Canada’s sixth appearance since FIBA U16 Women's Americas Championship began in 2009, with the country medalling in each of their previous five tournaments.

Click here for the roster.

QUOTES

"Personally, I’ve been hype for this first game since the night before. I was getting jumpy because I was just so excited about it. As a team, I feel like we played well in our first real game. I do feel like we could get better at certain things so we can make sure we’re not going to get caught next game.' - Isaline Alexander

"I thought today was a great start for the tournament for us. We have a group of girls that just really want to play hard for each other which I thought they did. We started out the tournament on a great note. We had a lot of different scorers and different people made great defensive contributions. I thought it was a great statement for our first international game." - Head Coach, Cheryl Jean-Paul

UP NEXT

Canada will play Brazil on June 17, 2019 at 6:00 pm ET. Fans can catch the game streaming live on FIBA YouTube or the Canada Basketball Facebook page.