EDMONTON, ALBERTA - Canada Basketball's Senior Women's National Team opened the Edmonton Grads International Classic with an 82-63 victory over China at the Saville Community Sports Centre on Saturday.

With an enthusiastic and patriotic crowd looking on at the official home of the SWNT, Tamara Tatham and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe each scored 12 points in a winning effort as Canada had seven players score at least eight points.

"That's what this team is," said SWNT captain Kim Gaucher. "We are so deep, it doesn't matter who it is, it's someone's hot we can get them the ball. We have 12 people that are capable on other teams to put up 20 a night if they had to, so it's really fun to play like that. We're very unselfish and it's really cool."

Canada's starting lineup included Miah-Marie Langlois, Gaucher, Raincock-Ekunwe, Tatham and Miranda Ayim.

Hometown favourite Michelle Plouffe added 11 points for Canada, while China's Shao Ting led all players with 13 points. For the boxscore click here.

Gaucher and Tatham tied for the team lead with seven rebounds a piece, Canada dominated on the glass, holding a 33-16 rebounding margin, including 13-3 on the offensive end.

"We have great rebounders, we get to hot spots and we've got a lot of height as well," said Tatham. "They're big, but our guards, sometimes, in different spots, are big too."

China started strong, going in front 6-0 lead and stretching its lead to 15-8, before Canada scored the final five points of the opening quarter to pull within two points, 15-13, after 10 minutes.

Just over two minutes into the second quarter, Nirra Fields drilled three-pointer to gave Canada its first lead of the night, 19-18 and spark a 17-4 run that titled the game in the SWNT's favour. Canada would go on to outscore China 26-15 in the quarter and take a 39-30 lead into halftime.

Canada carried its momentum coming out of the break by outscoring China 23-6 to start the third period en route to a 69-45 advantage with one 10 minutes to play. China won the fourth quarter, 18-13.

The game was Canada's first in a month, following at a successful European exhibition tour in early June.

"We've been away and not in game focus for a while, so it was good to work out the kinks and we had a better performance in the second half," said SWNT coach Lisa Thomaidis.

Canada and China meet in Game 2 of the EGIC at 4pm MT on Sunday, before wrapping things up Monday at 7pm MT. Follow @CanBBall for updates.

For full Edmonton Grads International Classic roster click here.

To purchase EGIC tickets click here.

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