After starting GLOBL JAM 2025 strong with a drubbing of Brazil and close loss to the Texas Longhorns, the Canadian Women’s under-23 team sputtered out of the gate in their final tune up before the gold medal game against the Longhorns Sunday.
But a massive 22-1 run to start the second half quickly made up for the misgivings of a subpar start as Avery Howell and Latisha Lattimore rained hellfire from deep in what ended up as a 96-46 walloping of Puerto Rico.
They’ll tip off against Texas – after dropping their first matchup of the tournament 70-61 on Thursday – in the final.
“I think it was way more about, honestly, our defensive intention and energy,” said Canada coach Carly Clarke of the second half turnaround. “We had a great start to the game but then it was almost like we just relaxed. They had 31 points in the first half; they finished with 46.”
We did make a couple tactical changes to be a little bit more aggressive defensively and try and engage our defence and raise our energy, and I thought that turned into great offence.”
After leading only 41-31 entering the second half Canada applied full-court pressure more effectively and picked up the ball higher, leading to more Puerto Rico mistakes and turnovers.
After the fast break points were near even through the start of the game, Canada pulled away and ended up boat racing Puerto Rico 23-8 in transition.
Howell’s jump shooting began to buoy Canada in the second quarter as their other avenues to offence faltered. The five-foot-11 guard sandwiched a runout two between two quick release catch-and-shoot threes finishing with 12 second-quarter points.
The light rain escalated into a torrential downpour in the third as Howell drained three more quick trigger threes from the top of the floor in quick succession for a 6-of-6 stretch shooting the deep ball. The USC Trojan sophomore finished with 28 points on 10-of-17 from the field and added 10 boards.
“I think it was a credit to the team. Avery’s always finding space but the ball was moving, and it found Avery in great spots where she’s wide open and those are like layups for her,” Clarke said. “When the ball has some energy behind it from our defence and from everybody touching it, you feel really good about those shots as they’re being released.”
Lattimore lifted out of the corner off a wide pin-down and made another triple – a fourth straight between her and Howell – punctuating the mammoth run.
Even when Lattimore finally missed a three, Howell was there to clean up the miss and swiftly deposit it back through the rim. A member of Canada’s 2022 GOLBL JAM gold medal group, Lattimore finished with 14 points in just under 14 minutes and added four blocks.
Early on, Kyrah Daniels ran an empty side pick n’ pop with Tara Wallack who caught and cashed an open corner 3. Yet most of Canada’s offence was stagnant to start, as ball screens failed to create advantages and drives were deterred short of the paint. Canada settled for contested twos and missed threes as Puerto Rico hung around.
Shy Day-Wilson was replaced in the starting lineup by Daniels yet still paced Canada in assists for a second straight game with five. The 22-year-old Toronto native has made good decisions with the ball at times during the tournament, but also often looks rushed, forcing drives or contested pull-ups when better reads are available.
“We’re just talking all the time about ‘what do we see, how are they covering things, and opportunities to attack’ so we just and talk about those things,” said Clarke of how Day-Wilson can improve her floor-processing in those moments. “And we want to play in transition and that leads to things speeding up sometimes. So, it’s a balance of continuing to develop and having that feel for the game.”
Lattimore displayed impressive shot-making and creation in the opening quarter, first hitting a catch-shoot-three from the wing. After she took a quick pass from Day-Wilson and froze her defender with a hesi dribble before rising up and draining a long two. A drive and reverse finish off the catch gave her a team-high seven in the first.
After shooting a tournament-low 3-of-19 from three against Texas on Thursday, Canada got up 42 attempts from deep Saturday night and made 17 of them, good for 40.5%.
“It’s a product of how they were defending, honestly,” Clarke said. “Texas brought a ton of ball-pressure, they were pretty focused on Avery and some of our shooters. Puerto Rico was a little bit more sagged, they showed some zone, so that opened up some different opportunities for us.”
