BUCHAREST, Romania (August 9, 2022) -- The Canadian Women’s 3X3 team opened play at the FIBA 3x3 Women’s Series Bucharest Stop 2022 by going undefeated. The Canadians finished Day 1 with victories over Italy and Israel.

In Canada’s first game of the day, the Canadians defeated Italy 19-17 behind Michelle Plouffe’s nine points and six rebounds. Katherine Plouffe added six points and nine rebounds as Canada dominated the boards, outrebounding Italy 22-11.

M. Plouffe opened the scoring with a corner two, but Italy responded by scoring the next four points of the game to take a 4-2 lead with 8:30 remaining. After a free throw and two-point shot from Paige Crozon, the game was tied at five points apiece.

With Italy leading by three, the Plouffe sisters went on a 5-0 run themselves to go ahead 11-9 until a two-pointer from Italy’s Debora Carangelo tied things up again with 3:30 remaining.

After a free throw from Carangelo put Italy ahead by a point, Canada put together another 5-0 sprint to lead 16-12 with 2:17 remaining. Another two from Carangelo brought Italy back within two points, but K. Plouffe scored to keep Canada in front by three with 31 seconds remaining.

A two from Raelin D’Alie trimmed the advantage again to a single point with 19 seconds on the clock, but Italy ran out of time as M. Plouffe scored with four seconds remaining to keep Canada in front and claim the victory.

The Canadians defeated Israel 22-17 with 1:08 remaining on the clock in their second game of the day. Canada was led in the victory by another dominant performance from M. Plouffe who finished with 10 points and four rebounds, while Crozon added seven points.

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After a long two-pointer from Crozon opened the scoring, Israel responded with three straight points to go ahead 3-2 until a bucket from Kacie Bosch and then a layup from Crozon put Canada ahead 4-3.

The teams would trade baskets and ties for much of this game until M. Plouffe tied the game at 11 with 5:17 remaining. A two-point shot from M. Plouffe then put Canada ahead 13-11 for good. Crozon followed up M. Plouffe’s shot with one of her own to give Canada a three-point lead until back-to-back scores from Daniel Raber got Israel within a point, 14-13, with 3:12 on the clock.

After the teams traded baskets again, M. Plouffe extended Canada’s advantage with her third two-point shot of the game to give Canada the 18-15 advantage with 2:06 remaining. Raber scored again for Israel but it was too late as Canada scored the next four points to take the win with a Crozon two-pointer sealing the victory.

Canada shot 11-for-14 from inside the arc and 5-for-15 from the two-point line in the victory compared to Israel’s 13-for-22 from inside the arc and 2-for-8 from two-point range.

Canada will face Düsseldorf ZOOS in the quarter-finals on Wednesday at 11:20 a.m. ET, streaming live on the FIBA 3x3 YouTube page.