The Senior Women’s National Team (SWNT) fell to Spain today, 61-55. With the loss, Canada’s record in the four-team tournament in Paris fell to 0-2; the team holds a 4-3 mark during its current European Exhibition Tour.

Team Canada showed some growing pains today as turnovers proved to be an issue. 13 first-half turnovers proved costly to the squad as Spain responded with 10 points off of those miscues. However, a strong coordinated attack and impressive play on the defensive end propelled Canada to a 29-28 lead after the opening 20 minutes of play. The team shot an impressive 55 per cent from the field to overcome some poor handling.

Canada remained competitive with a committed effort to corralling rebounds. The team finished the game with a distinct 30-17 rebounding advantage with Miranda Ayim, Janelle Bekkering and Kendel Ross each collecting five. However, difficulty with the ball continued to plague the team. Spain continued to press the Canadians and created offensive chances from their strong defence. A 14-0 run by the Spanish side between the third and fourth quarters proved to be too much for Team Canada to handle.

Head coach Lisa Thomaidis sees today’s performance as a missed opportunity. “We are disappointed because tonight was win-able for us. We had too many turnovers. We are looking forward to our game against Turkey.” London, Ontario’s Ayim sees tomorrow at a chance for redemption, adding that, “we improved tremendously on some aspects of our offence that we have been working on. We are ready to bring all of that into game three.”

To view the game’s statistics, click here.

Canada will conclude the four-team tournament in France tomorrow when they match-up with Team Turkey at 7:30 a.m. (ET). This will be the final game in Canada’s European Exhibition Tour schedule.

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