TENERIFE, ESP (September 29, 2018) - Canada's Senior Women's National Team fell to China 76-71 on Saturday afternoon in the classification round at FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018.

Click here for the box score.

Kia Nurse finished the game with a team-high 18 points to go along with two rebounds and two assists. Natalie Achonwa added 13 points and seven rebounds, while Jamie Scott had 10 points and five rebounds off the bench. Meng Li had 18 points for China in the victory.

A back-and-forth opening quarter saw Canada carry a three-point advantage into the second, thanks in large part to outscoring China 14-4 in the paint.  

An 8-0 run for Canada in the second quarter would stretch the lead to 13 points, 33-20.  Canada’s lead would grow to as many as 15 in the frame, entering halftime with a 48-34 advantage.

However, China would answer in the third with a 11-0 run of their own to shrink the Canadian advantage to just three points, 55-52.  Despite being outscored by 10 points in the quarter, Canada carried a four point lead into the fourth.

Canada couldn’t slow China’s momentum in the fourth as they were outscored 18-9 in the final 10 minutes.

Click here for the roster.

QUOTES

“This is a very young team and these are really, really tough lessons to learn but the world is very good at basketball and we’re learning that right now.” – Kim Gaucher

"We’re going to regroup and put forth our best effort tomorrow to finish as high as we possibly can in this tournament.  Every team here is really good and unfortunately we didn’t’ have the consistency of effort to sustain the lead we built in the first half.”– Lisa Thomaidis

UP NEXT

Canada will now play Nigeria on Sunday at 6:30 AM ET for 7th place at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018.

To stay updated on the Senior Women's National Team and the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018, follow Canada Basketball on Twitter.

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