TOKYO, JAPAN (August 12, 2017) - The Development Women's National Team fell to Japan 79-54 on Saturday night in their first game of the U24 Women Basketball League Four Nations 2017.

Paige Crozon led Canada with 13 points and four rebounds, while Ceejay Nofuente and Jaelyne Kirkpatrick both added nine points. Nofuente also had a game high eight rebounds in the loss.

A slow start for Canada saw them trailing Japan 21-4 after the first quarter.  Despite outscoring the home team 19-15 in the second, Canada went into the half trailing 36-23.  Team Canada continued to keep pace in the third quarter before Japan finally pulled away for good in the fourth.

Click here for the full team roster.

QUOTES

"It was a very physical game and a reintroduction for a lot of players to the international level of basketball.  So they were kind of knocked back on their heels early and we tried to dig out of that hole.  We did a better job in the second half but the first half was a bit shaky.  We haven't scrimmaged anyone at all so this was our first matchup versus anybody so not bad for a first time out.  We did a lot of things we wanted to do.  Some of the things we didn't cover were transition defence and rebounding early and that hurt us.  But this is a process and we're building towards the end of the tournament and on to FISU."- Fabian McKenzie, Head Coach

"It was our first outing so there is definitely room for improvement and I think we identified areas of weakness and know where to build on for tomorrow." - Paige Crozon

UP NEXT

Canada plays USA Sunday, August 13 at 3:30 AM ET. Follow Canada Basketball on Twitter for score updates. Clickhere for the complete tournament schedule.

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

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