Canada’s U16 Basketball Women’s team easily beat Puerto Rico

It was total team effort that lifted Canada’s Cadette National Women’s Team (CWNT) over Puerto Rico, 80-66 on Tuesday night. They used a fourth quarter surge led by a team-high, 23 points from Kia Nurse (Hamilton, ON) to run their record to 2-0 at the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women in Merida, Mexico.

After a victory over Guatemala, Canada faced a tough team from Puerto Rico, who was also coming off an opening round win against Mexico. Canada’s defensive tenacity on the glass was once again on display as they out-rebounded Puerto Rico 57-37.

Both teams exchanged baskets to open the game, with Puerto Rico taking an early 18-15 advantage. However, the CWNT continued to put pressure on the ball defensively and managed to turn an early deficit into a seven point lead, as they went into halftime with a 39-32 advantage.

In the second half, the CWNT continued to control the glass, while maintaining offensive efficiency, building up a 58-49 lead after three quarters. Early into the fourth quarter, Puerto Rico cut the lead to 5. However, 5 straight points by Nurse put Canada’s lead back up to double digits and never looked back.

"We had an up and down first half as we struggled to adjust to the physicality of the game. Once we established our inside game we had a ton of success,” said Head Coach Carly Clarke. “Our bigs really stepped up in the second half and secured rebounds and got easy scores. The team really made the effort plays that allowed us to be successful."

Contributing offensively were Hilary Hanaka (Hamilton, ON) and Kolbie Orum (Maple Ridge, BC) with 14 points apiece. Cheyanne Roger (Toronto, ON) had a game-high 11 rebounds, six of them coming on the offensive side; while Hannah Jardine (St. John’s NL) added eight. Roger leads the tournament in rebounding after two games with 20 in total.

Puerto Rico was led by a game-high 26 points from Aleana Leon Garcia, who currently leads the tournament in scoring, with Nurse closely behind.

With the win, the CWNT moves their record to 2-0 and sit alone atop Group A. They play their final preliminary round game tomorrow versus the host nation, Mexico.