Canada reign supreme; Beat Great Britain 73-65 – London Olympics Women Basketball Recap
The Canadian Women Basketball team secured their first victory at the 2012 London Olympics by defeating Great Britain 73-65 in a close game.
After losing to Russia on Saturday, the Canadian side was able to get into good rhythm against the home team. Canada outscored Britain 18-12 in the final quarter, which proved to be the decisive factor. Shona Thorburn scored a
game high 18 points, going 6 of 10 from the field to lead the Canadian side to victory.
Jo Leedham and Natalie Stafford both scored 15 points for Great Britain, put their combined effort was not enough to prevent their team from losing.
The Canadian side did a good job in maintaining a 19-15 lead to close the first quarter, after a tough fight from team Britain. But the competition got even tougher in the second period, when both teams refused to let the other
build any sort of momentum and create a run or extend a lead. The quarter was contested so evenly that both teams scored the same number of points, 17, for the period. Canada cashed in on their four point lead at the end of the first quarter to go into halftime
still leading by 4.
The British team provided an even fiercer fight in the third period, as it was becoming difficult to pick a team. Britain outscored Canada by two points in the third period, reducing the Canadian lead to 2 points heading into the
final period.
The final quarter saw Canada rise to the occasion and pull out a few clutch plays that allowed them to finally take a marginable lead. The British team lost momentum for an instant, and that is all it took for the focused Canadian
side to build a lead that they then held on to till the end of the game. In the end, Canada outscored Britain 18-12 in the final period to clinch a 73-65 victory.
The British side failed to put up any worthwhile performance apart from the 15 point input by Leedham and Stafford. Russia had Thorburn chipping in with 18 points, Courtnay Pilypaitis and Kimberley Smith both added 11 points. Lizanne
Murphy also added 9 points for the night.
Canada was the better team from the field, shooting 45.9% for the night as compared to Britain who shot 39.1% from the field. Both teams were evenly matched and played an intense and competitive game of basketball, with Canada
coming out with the victory only near the near of the final quarter, where they were able to get a few clutch stops. Britain have now lost both of their opening two games are will be looking at elimination.
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