The Canadian Olympic women’s basketball team will be in tough to find themselves on the podium in Paris this year.
Taking on Australia in their second matchup of the group stage, Canada didn’t quite have enough of a push in order to grind out a win, and fell 70-65 on Thursday’s contest.
Coupled with a 75-54 loss earlier in the tournament to hosts France, Canada will need a win on Sunday over Nigeria and some help in order to make it to the final eight of the tournament.
If Nigeria beats France today, the Canadians will be unable to advance out of the group stage, effectively ending their Olympic campaign. The top two teams in each of the three groups advance, as do the top two third-ranked teams.
Canada last played in the quarterfinals of women’s basketball at the Rio 2016 Olympics, where France knocked them out by a 68-63 score.
An emotional Bridget Carleton assessed the situation in a post-game interview.
“We had some good moments,” Carleton told CBC’s Nabil Karim “But over the course of 40 minutes we need to be more locked in… We’re learning a lot about ourselves. It’s hard, a lot of good teams here. A learning lesson for all of us.”
Canada and Nigeria face off at 7:30 am ET/4:30 am PT on Sunday, in a game that could have either serious consequences for Canada or nothing but pride.
The Canadian men, however, are flying through their first two games. They bested the Australians by a 93-83 score on Tuesday, while beating Greece 86-79 on Saturday to remain undefeated early in their Olympic journey. They have secured a berth in the quarterfinals, while they finish off their group stage with a match against Spain on Friday morning, at 11:15 am ET/ 8:15 am PT.
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