OSTEND, BELGIUM (February 6, 2020) – The Senior Women’s National Team opened their campaign at the FIBA Women’s Qualifying Tournament with a hard-fought 61-56 victory over host team Belgium in front of a sold-out crowd at the Versluys Dôme on Thursday night.

Kia Nurse led all scorers with a game-high 19 points, while Kayla Alexander added 12 in her first game back since rehabbing from a knee injury.  Emma Meesseman’s 14 points led Belgium while Kim Mestdagh added 12 in the loss.

With the victory, Canada is a win away from advancing to the Tokyo 2020 Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament.

“That was a great way to start the tournament and a great team win,” Nurse said. “The morale was extremely high, the passion, the excitement to be here, being in this position to have opportunity to do something special to get to Tokyo.”

Though Canada led by as many as 16 points in the first half, Belgium continued to chip away at the lead in the second. A three-pointer from Belgium’s Hanne Mestdagh cut Canada’s advantage to two, 58-56, with 12 seconds remaining. After Alexander calmly sank a pair of free throws to extend Canada’s lead to four with 10 seconds remaining, Canada’s defence came up big again as the team forced another turnover, this time on the inbounds. With seven seconds on the clock, Belgium immediately fouled Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe. After she made one of two free throws to put Canada ahead by five, a three-point attempt from Kim Mestdagh at the buzzer was off the mark and Canada was victorious.

“[Playing in front of the sold-out Belgium crowd] was an absolutely insane environment to play in,” Nurse said. “But I'm so proud of our team and the way we fought. Everyone came in and contributed in their own way and I think that was something that was really exciting for us.”

Though the ending wasn’t without its stresses, Team Canada head coach Lisa Thomaidis was pleased with how her team responded down the stretch.

“Those are great games to be a part of,” Thomaidis said. “We’ve played in a few of these now and the more we’re in them, the better we respond to them. We had a lot of players who played big moments and tonight shows how we can handle them, ride those waves and handle the momentum shifts and still come out on top. It was fun.”

The game began with a low-scoring first half that saw Canada lead 12-7 after the opening quarter, thanks in part to a strong defensive effort that helped to force Belgium into 15 first-half turnovers. Canada shot 41 percent in the first half, while holding Belgium to 29 percent shooting. Though the Canadians led 30-14 with 2:09 remaining in the half, Belgium closed the half on a 9-0 run to trim Canada’s lead to 30-23 at the break. Alexander was fantastic in the first half, leading all scorers with 10 points, while Nurse added eight for Canada. Belgium was led by an eight-point effort from Kim Mestdagh and six points from Hanne Mestdagh.

“They had a couple of runs in the game that were pretty tough to stop,” Nurse said. “They obviously have great, world-class players. I think our defence was the key in that and making sure we got possessions for ourselves.”

Canada led throughout the final three quarters, heading into the fourth with a four-point lead, ahead 46-42 after Nurse and Belgium’s Jana Raman traded three-pointers to close the third. Canada finished the game 4-of-17 from beyond the arc while Belgium connected on 8-of-25 attempts from three.

"We were really, really excited to play someone other than ourselves,” Nurse said. “In practice [all week], the defensive pressure was very ramped up and I think that's what started us and sparked us going forward in the first half, especially with the amount of turnovers they had. We just kept pushing that through to finish it off.”

Though this is just the first of three games Canada will play in the tournament, Nurse called the game a “good momentum builder.” When asked about goals for the team ahead, Thomaidis was quick to say that she wants her team focused on the task at hand.

“Every single one of these games is meaningful for us,” Thomaidis said. “We don't want to look too far ahead, we've got to do our work along the way, keep progressing and we need to keep the focus on us. How can we be better? Not compare as much with who we’re chasing, but play the highest quality of basketball that we can and see where that takes us.”

“Today was a good step forward in that direction.”

The next step for Team Canada will be a match up against Sweden on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2:35 P.M. ET.

CBC Sports will broadcast all three of Canada’s games and have pre-game, halftime and post-game shows hosted by Andi Petrillo, featuring analysis from two-time Canadian Olympic national team player Lizanne Murphy and former national team player/coach and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame member Bev Smith.

Saturday’s game will be shown on delay on the main network following Hockey Night in Canada.

Fans can catch the action streaming live in Canada on DAZN and the CBC Gem app.  ESPN+ will carry Canada’s games in the United States.

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