In front of 4,642 fans packed into the confines of Pabellón Príncipe Felipe, an arena in Zaragoza, Spain, eyeballs aplenty were locked in on a pair of Canadian Olympians clashing it out for a ticket to the 2025 EuroLeague Women’s Final.

Mersin’s Bridget Carleton, a Chatham, Ont. product and Valencia’s Kayla Alexander, a product of Milton, Ont., were doing battle more than 6,000 km away from home on the biggest stage in European women’s club basketball.

With Mersin leading 68-66 and under five seconds remaining, Carleton intercepted an errand Valencia pass, then killing out the subsequent clock to help her club advance to Sunday’s championship game.

Just moments prior Carleton connected on a game-tying triple with just 2:05 remaining in the fourth quarter, helping kickstart a Mersin 5-0 run, which was halted by a Alexander lay-in with a little more than 30 seconds remaining in the contest.

Unfortunately for Valencia, a game-tying Alexander lay-in to give her 14 points on the evening was the final bucket of the evening, as Carleton got the best of her fellow Canadian Olympian.

Mersin eventually fell to Praha two days later in the EuroLeague Women’s Final, despite the best efforts of Carleton, who scored 15 points on 5-10 shooting in defeat, while Alexander and Valencia fell 59-49 to Fenerbahce Opet in the third-place game.

EuroLeague Women is considered as the preeminent women’s basketball league in Europe, with 12 teams from countries across the continent competing for the right to become EuroLeague champions.

“It is an exciting statement for basketball in Canada to have two our country’s best playing in the EuroLeague semifinals. The performances from both Kayla and Bridget speaks volumes about their talent and the growing depth of talent in our country,” said Steve Baur, General Manager and Vice-President, Women’s High Performance.

Alexander averaged 10.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game — tied for fourth most in the EuroLeague this season — in 10 games with Valencia.

Carleton averaged 11.1 points per game in 11 EuroLeague contests, shooting 36.1 per cent from long-range. The Chatham, Ont. product also averaged 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, as she now gets set to rejoin the Minnesota Lynx ahead of the 2025 WNBA season.

Carleton and Alexander are also among a contingent of Canadians who figure to suit up for their country at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025 later this summer, as the Senior Women’s National Team officially tips off its next quadrennial and looks ahead to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 and 2028 Olympic Games.

“Their experiences and continued growth in some of the best environments and leagues and around the world will pay benefit to our entire program,” said Baur.

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025 takes place June 28-July 6 in Santiago, Chile, with Canada slotted into Group A with El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina and Dominican Republic.