Canada Basketball's Senior Women's National Team opened its European exhibition tour with a 77-54 loss to host Spain in Palencia on Saturday.

Michelle Plouffe came off the bench to a Canada with 13 points, while Miranda Ayim chipped in 12. Tamara Tatham contributed 10 points and a team-leading seven rebounds for the SWNT, which was playing its first game of 2016 as it begins building towards the Rio Games. Spain's Marta Xargay paced all players with 17 points. For the full boxscore visit http://baloncestoenvivo.feb.es/Game/2016004

"It was a typical first game of the summer in that we weren't very sharp," SWNT head coach Lisa Thomaidis said. "I thought our first half we were pretty solid defensively, and  in the second half, Spain is a very skillled team and they exploited some things against in the offensive end. But we'll look forward to learning from this one, and getting better for tomorrow, being ready for Cuba."

The veteran unit of Ayim, Kim Gaucher, Miah-Marie Langlois, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe and Tatham started for Canada and helped set the tone for a closely contested first half in which neither team led by more than a few points. The game was tied at 15 after the first quarter before Spain took a narrow 30-28 advantage into the halftime break.

The home team opened things up in third quarter, doubling Canada 24-12 to go in front 54-40 with one quarter remaining.

Guards Bridget Carleton and Laura Dally made their SWNT debuts in the game. Four players grabbed at least five boards for Canada, which held a 36-33 edge on the glass, including 14 rebounds on the offensive end.

The SWNT returns to action against Cuba at 2pm EST on Sunday, before travelling to France for three more exhibition games. Follow all the games at @CanBBall

"We came into this game knowing we wanted to work on some things," said Ayim. "We started off the game very well: high intensity, great defence ... I think it was a good game to see what we need to work on and bring into the next game also bring into the French tournament."

Full roster here: http://basketball.ca/en/team_programs/womens-team

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