UDINE, ITALY (July 29, 2017) - The U19 Women's National Team fell to Russia 65-41 in the semifinals at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup in Italy. Canada will now play for the bronze medal tomorrow in hopes of securing the team’s best finish at the tournament.
Click here for the box score.
Hailey Brown (Hamilton, ON) led Canada with seven points and five rebounds while Sarah Donovan (London, ON) added six points and one rebound. Alyssa Jerome (Toronto, ON), Shaina Pellington (Pickering, ON) and Angela Bongomin (Regina, SK) also each contributed five points in the game.
A slow start from the Canadians saw them trailing the FIBA No. 5 ranked Russians 43-17 after the first half. Following a close third quarter, Canada outscored Russia 17-9 in the final frame but it wasn’t enough as the defending silver medalists advanced to the finals with a 65-41 win.
Canada will look to regroup and prepare to face either Japan or the United States of America for bronze on Sunday. A victory Sunday would be Canada’s highest finish after placing fourth at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women (Bangkok, Thailand).
Click here for the full team roster.
QUOTES
"Really tough loss today. When you get to this point in a world championship the games get increasingly tougher. Russia came out very prepared, shot well in the first half and just outplayed us. Their physicality influenced our play and we weren’t able to bounce back. Now we look ahead and focus on trying to bring a bronze medal home to Canada tomorrow." - Carly Clarke, Head Coach
"Today was definitely a tough game. We got away from what was working for us, which was playing as a team. Russia is a great team and we struggled against them. We have to look past what happened today and get ready for tomorrow. We are still competing for a medal which was our goal coming into the tournament and we are hoping to finish with a bronze." - Alyssa Jerome (Toronto, ON)
UP NEXT
Canada will play for the bronze medal tomorrow on Sunday, July 30 at 12:30 PM ET (Opponent TBD). The game will be live streamed on our Facebook Page. Click here for the complete tournament schedule.
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Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca