Canada 71, Serbia 67 | Box Score
That the ball was in the hands of 20-year-old Kia Nurse, fresh off of surgery and a shaky outing in the Olympic tournament opener, wasn’t all that surprising. That she dribbled out the clock and made a great read to feed Miah-Marie Langlois for a game-sealing three helps to explain why. That the Canadian women were even in a position to hit a dagger in the game’s closing seconds tells you everything you need to know about why Canadian basketball fans are so high on this squad.
Not long before Langlois’ sure-to-be evergreen-highlight, things looked dire for the Canadians. A strong start at the defensive end dissipated quickly, and a high-pressure Serbian front was forcing Canada out of their game at the offensive end. The result was a heavy dose of Canadian turnovers, a defense that was trying it’s damnedest but couldn’t get settled after the initial scrambles caused by the transition pressure, and a deficit that swelled to what felt like an insurmountable level.
Canada entered halftime down eight, momentum decidedly on Serbia’s side thanks in part to some tough, deep threes. With Canada unable to adjust immediately, Serbia quickly pushed that lead to 18. The defending European champions entered the game as modest 2.5-point favorites and the tournament as moderately stronger medal contenders than Canada (according to oddsmakers), and their pressure and experience appeared to perhaps be too daunting for a very young Canadian side. Ana Dabovic was surgical on the offensive end with a 14-5-5 line that doesn’t do her game justice and Jelena Milovanovic proved difficult to keep off the score sheet with 19 of her own. Canada’s advantage on the glass wasn’t quite enough early on, even with Serbia shooting a frigid 6-of-22 from long-range to help cover for some defensive miscues on the perimeter.
That Canadian side is also deep, however, and head coach Lisa Thomaidis did some nice tinkering – including heating up Canada’s own defensive pressure in the back court – to wrestle some momentum back. Thanks to Nurse opting to salt the earth with nine of her game-high 25 points in the third quarter, Canada reeled off an 11-0 run late in the frame. Things turned bleak again momentarily when Serbia closed the quarter with five unanswered, and Canada was left looking up at a 12-point hole entering the fourth despite taking a mighty swing back at the Serbians.
Anyone expecting the team to roll over at that point hasn’t been paying attention in this Olympic cycle. The FIBA Americas champions – the exact same group, in fact – were able to lean on their in-spite-of-our-youth experience to continue chipping away, with some fresh legs an 11-woman rotation provides proving valuable down the stretch (and some otherworldly perseverance from Nurse, who played the entirety of the second half). The defense found the gear it showed in the game’s opening minutes, the Serbians collapsed around the pressure they now felt they had to put on Nurse (who responded with five assists), and 22-year-old Nirra Fields made here presence felt with some timely buckets. Kim Gaucher, who struggled to a 3-of-13 mark from the floor overall, found the right time to make her opportunities count, too.
#CAN Kim Gaucher gets the friendly roll to make it a one-point game against #SRB WATCH NOW https://t.co/M0vKEOQJJb https://t.co/iD67uoJl7e
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) August 8, 2016
Unlikely though it seemed, Canada had trimmed that 18 point lead to 12, and then down to no lead at all by the 4:46 mark of the fourth, thanks once again to Fields.
#CAN DAGGER ALERT!!!! Tie game https://t.co/c1JKY4i0Ad
— Spencer Redmond (@Spenred) August 8, 2016
Back on even footing, Canada and Serbia traded shots down the stretch with neither side able to wrangle control. After Dabovic made two trips to the line sandwiched around a major block near the rim on Nurse, Serbia held their last lead, 67-65, with 1:11 to go. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, herself just 24 and not a major part of the rotation a year ago, responded by scooping up an offensive rebound, getting fouled, and sticking the finish for a go-ahead and-one. Sonja Petrovic tried to answer with a drive but was whistled for a travel, setting up a Canada timeout and the Nurse-to-Langlois bucket. (Langlois, by the way, is also just 24, meaning Canada had three players 24 or younger on the floor for the final 8:31 of play.)
Can we…can we just watch this a few more times? Thanks.
2016 Olympics, Game 2, FINAL: 🇨🇦 71 🇷🇸 67 #Rio2016 💯 pic.twitter.com/PZJtyc4RE8
— Canada Basketball (@CanBball) August 8, 2016
The win is huge for Canada not just because it’s a moderate upset that moves them to 2-0, but because beating Serbia – now the most likely fourth-place finisher in Pool B, assuming Canada can take care of business against Senegal on Wednesday – improves Canada’s chances of avoiding Australia in the quarterfinals. That’s looking ahead a bit, and Canada has plenty of work to do before that point, of course. But Monday’s game had the biggest seed-changing potential of any of Pool B’s round robin games, barring upsets, and Canada sent a strong message that they’re not to be counted out, no matter the deficit. (It also gives Canada a shot at second in their pool if they can pull off an upset against Spain on Sunday, but again, that’s a bit forward-looking with Senegal and the U.S. on tap before then.)
This was the message all along, and it was iterated loud and clear: The Canadian women may be a remarkably young group and may not be perceived as a medal favorite just yet as a result, but they’re here trying to push that timeline ahead a cycle and make life uncomfortable for the incumbents. They’re off to a damn good start.
