LIMA, PERU (August 7, 2019) – Team Canada defeated Paraguay 90-64  on Wednesday afternoon to improve to 1-1 in the Preliminary Round at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.

Click here for the box score.

Sami Hill had a team-high 14 points for Canada in the victory.  Captain Jamie Scott added 12 points of her own, while Ruth Hamblin finished with a game-high 10 rebounds. Paola Ferrari had a game-high 28 points for Paraguay in the loss.

After a back-and-forth opening first few minutes of the quarter, Canada used a 9-0 run, their largest of game, to build a 20-12 advantage and entered the second with a 22-17 lead.

Paraguay continued to chip away at the Canadian lead and got the deficit down to three points early in the second quarter.  Despite Canada almost building a double-digit lead midway through the frame, Paraguay refused to go away, pulling as close as two points with just over four minutes to play in the half.  However, Canada wouldn’t relinquish the lead and entered halftime with a six-point lead, 41-35.

Canada stretched their lead to 13, 49-36, with just over seven minutes to play in the third.  With the teams exchanging buckets for much of the quarter, Canada carried a 64-48 lead into the final quarter.

In the end, the Canadians proved to just be too much to handle, outscoring Paraguay by 10 points for the second consecutive quarter on their way to a 26-point victory, 90-64.

Canada is in Group A for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games and will face Brazil (August 6), Paraguay (August 7) and Puerto Rico (August 8) in the preliminary round.

Canada qualified for Lima 2019 with a gold medal at the FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2017.  The field for the 2019 Pan American Games basketball competition includes the top six teams from the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2017 (Canada, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Brazil, U.S. Virgin Islands, Paraguay and Colombia), along with Olympic champion, United States, and the host country, Peru.

The Pan Am Games basketball competition does not have a direct impact on qualification for Tokyo 2020 but will serve as an important step in preparing for the FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2019 in September as Canada begins the qualification process for the Olympic Games.

Lima 2019, which will run from July 26 to August 11, will bring together approximately 6,700 athletes from 41 nations of the Americas and feature 62 disciplines in 39 sports. It will be the largest sporting event ever held in Peru.

Click here for the roster.

QUOTES

“Today was a better game for us. We came into the tournament hoping to wear on some people and do our job on the glass at both ends.  We established that early today in the first half. I think we felt the dividends of that effort in the second half.  Paraguay does a tremendous job of continuing to fight and make good shots but it was important for us to have that effort and wear on them as the game went on.” – Steve Baur

“I think we did an amazing job as a team today.  We had a few goals coming in and we definitely executed.  We destroyed them on the glass, which was one of our big focuses, and that led to good things in transition and getting into our offence easily.” – Sami Hill

UP NEXT

Canada will play Puerto Rico on Thursday at 10:00 pm ET. Fans can watch live action from the Pan Am Games in Lima live on CBC Sports.

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