Kalisha Keane leads as Canada rout Paraguay 77-26: FIBA Americas C’Ship for Women
Forward Kalisha Keane scored a game-high 15 points as Canada beat Paraguay 77-26 on Monday, 26th September, winning their second consecutive at the FIBA Americas women’s basketball championship. With this victory, the
No. 12 seed Canadians have now risen to the second spot in Group B with five points.
“This was a really good win for us,” Guard Lizanne Murphy said in a news release. “Coming out of our loss to Brazil last night, we really wanted to work on our offensive execution. Our team can score and do a lot of great things
on offence, so this was a good game to get our confidence up and show ourselves what we are capable of. Defensively, it was good for us to work on our penetration defence. They have a lot of quick guards, so it was good preparation for us moving forward.”
Keane went 5 for 11 from the field, including a perfect 3 from the three-point range. Murphy added 11 points and grabbed four rebounds while Kim Smith ended the game with 10 points, three rebounds and a steal. Power forward Tamara
Tatham also tallied eight points and a game-best eight rebounds for Canada, who lost 56-39 to Brazil in their previous game.
Not even a single player of Paraguay reached double figures. Ilda Pena was the top scorer with only seven points and two rebounds. Rocio Insfran chipped in five points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds while Maria Mercado
and María Caraves posted four points each in the loss.
Canada shot 37.5 percent (27 for 72) from the field and 94.1 percent (16 for 17) from free throw line, limiting Paraguay to only 20.4 percent (10 for 49) from the floor and 66.7 percent (4 for 6) from the line. In addition to that,
Paraguay committed 26 turnovers as compared to only 16 by the Canadians.
Canada got off to an impressive start and built a 16-point lead, 22-6, by the end of first quarter. They continued to run over Paraguay’s defense in the next frame as well and stretched their lead to 42-17, heading into the locker
room.
A 25 point lead at halftime did not stop Canada from drubbing Paraguay 35-9 in the second half. The head coach of Canada’s Women’s National Basketball team Allison McNeill praised her team’s defensive efforts in second half after
the game, “Our defence was outstanding, holding them to only nine points in the second half.”
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