The Canadian Women’s 3x3 team opened play at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup in Vienna on Tuesday with a 1-1 record in Day 1 of pool play.

After falling 20-18 in overtime against the Czech Republic in the first game of the day, the Canadians battled back against the United States to take a 16-13 victory behind an eight-point performance from Michelle Plouffe.

The Canadians opened event play against the Czech Republic, where a two-point shot from Anna Rylichová saw Canada fall behind 3-1. The hot shooting didn’t stop as the Czech Republic finished the game a blistering 9-for-13 from the floor and 5-for-11 from beyond the arc. Canada struggled from deep, their lone two-pointer in 10 attempts coming from Paige Crozon to bring Canada within a point with 5:02 remaining. Canada tied the game on a shot from Katherine Plouffe inside and then Kacie Bosch scored on back-to-back possessions to extend the lead to two points, 12-10, for Canada with 3:20 remaining.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Shimmied her to the ❌ games 🤐<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/3x3WC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#3x3WC</a><a href="https://t.co/cBZ9IH3p9b">pic.twitter.com/cBZ9IH3p9b</a></p>&mdash; FIBA3x3 (@FIBA3x3) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBA3x3/status/1663475592413708288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

After a two-point shot from Katerina Galíčková tied the game at 14 points apiece, M. Plouffe scored inside, but Galíčková tied things up again at 15 and then connected on a tough two-point shot to move the Czech Republic in front by two, 17-15, with 56 seconds remaining. Shots from each Plouffe sister tied the game at 18 points to force overtime, but Galíčková opened the extra session with a two-pointer to win the game for the Czech Republic.

M. Plouffe finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and five highlights in the loss.

In their second game of the day, Canada shook off a tough start against the United States, falling behind 7-1 to the Americans, to come back and take a 16-13 victory behind another eight-point effort from M. Plouffe. K. Plouffe and Crozon finished with four points apiece. Canada shot just 1-for-13 from beyond the arc in the win, but made up for it inside where they were 9-for-14 on one-point shots, compared to the U.S. who made just 9-of-23 attempts inside, and one of eight attempts from deep. 

With the U.S. leading 7-1, Canada went on a 6-1 run of their own, capped by a two-point shot from M. Plouffe to get within a point, 8-7, with 3:22 remaining. Cierra Burdick got a reverse lay-in to go for the U.S., keeping their lead at two points, but M. Plouffe was fouled on a drive and made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 9 points apiece with 2:43 remaining. The teams traded free throws and shots, the game remaining tied until Crozon made a free throw and then drove to the rim for a lay-in, putting Canada up 15-13 with 35 seconds remaining. After a broken play for the U.S., M. Plouffe scored against Haley Van Lith and Canada went on to the 16-13 victory.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A final already on Day 1😱<br><br>Watch the Game Highlights of <a href="https://twitter.com/usab3x3?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@usab3x3</a> vs <a href="https://twitter.com/CanBball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CanBball</a> at the 3x3 World Cup 2023 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/3x3WC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#3x3WC</a><a href="https://t.co/ngHNkbxOA7">pic.twitter.com/ngHNkbxOA7</a></p>&mdash; FIBA3x3 (@FIBA3x3) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBA3x3/status/1663509681879535621?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Plouffe finished with 16 points in Day 1, placing her fifth in scoring on the women's side of the event. She also led the women’s event in rebounding with 15 total rebounds. With 34 points scored across their two games played, Canada trail only the Czech Republic who have 41 total points scored. In the event of a tiebreaker after pool play, the first tiebreaker is total points scored.

Up next for the Canadians in pool play is a meeting with Mongolia on Thursday at 7am ET/4am PT and then a game against Hungary at 9am ET/6am PT. 

Catch all the action streaming across CBC digital platforms, including the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca and CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices or FIBA 3x3 YouTube.