FIBA Flashback: Canada Convincingly Conquer the Czech Republic
It was win or go home for eight teams at the most precarious points of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women and in the Turkish capital of Ankara, on October 1st 2014, Canada pulled off one of the biggest surprise results of the tournament.
The national side had a good start to the tournament with a 69-54 win over Mozambique, only to experience successive setbacks against Turkey and France. They had a lifeline to stay in contention, though, finishing third in Group B to qualify for the Elimination Round - a win in which would earn them a spot in the Quarter Finals.
Their opponents would be the Czech Republic, who at the time were on hot form and their only slip up so far had been against Spain. Everything that had to both teams so far seemed to indicate one result, but on the day nothing went as many had been expecting.
Katerina Elhotova was first to score with a three, she then made the assist to Katerina Bartonova to add more to the Czechs early lead. Not long after, Miranda Ayim made it a one-point game, which was followed by Shona Thornburn and Kia Nurse putting Canada up by four points after five minutes.
The Czechs started to regain control from three-point territory while Canada struggled to get a shot to drop. Elhotova brought the gap down to two, but a technical foul called on Petra Kulichova left the door open for Katherine Plouffe to score five in a row. Kim Gaucher ended the first quarter with a jump shot to bring Canada's lead to 22-13.
Kulichova began the second quarter with a three-point play and continued to dominate on offence for the Czech Republic, getting them closer to the lead. Ayim broke a long Canadian cold streak and the game started to get scrappy.
Nurse and Fields both found scoring opportunities from close range, and Michelle Plouffe doing the same from beyond the arc, which gave Canada their first double-digit lead of the game. Puchikova and Katerina Sedlakova picking up precious points for the Czechs, only Ayim and Fields were doing the same for Canada, only more so. They finished the first half leading 42-32.
Elhotova gave the Czech Republic their first five points of the second half, but Canada were still having the most success on offence, with Fields and Gaucher doing the most damage. Gaucher went on to score five in a row after a long drought, keeping the double-digit Canadian lead healthy.
Eva Viteckova twice got the Czechs to within ten of Canada, but at the third quarter buzzer they still had a lot of ground to make up, trailing 65-55.
Michaela Stejskalova, coming off the bench, tried to make headway for the Czech Republic with time starting to run out for them. A sudden succession of points from Gaucher, Nurse and Katherine Plouffe midway through the fourth, though, made for a much harder target for the Czechs.
With just over a minute on the clock Nirra Fields hit four points in a row, she was followed by Gaucher and Michelle Plouffe, who took Canada's lead to twenty points and Nurse gave them their biggest lead of the game of twenty-two.
Stejskalova had the last attempt at basket of the game, which fell short, but would not have made any difference if it had. The Czech Republic were out of the tournament after a shock but comprehensive routing from Canada, who won by 91 points to 71.
Eva Viteckova got to go out with a team-high 17 points, with Katerina Elhotova the second-best Czech scorer with 13. Victorious Canada saw great production from their bench players - Nirra Fields scored 15 points in seventeen minutes, Katherine Plouffe had 13 in twenty. The standout, though, was Kim Gaucher with 17 points and 7 rebounds in the win.
Canada were then able to advance to the quarter finals, but their tournament came to an end after a 63-52 loss to eventual bronze medallists Australia. Winning both placement games meant a fifth-place overall finish, nothing could quite match the conviction and drive showed in the game against the Czech Republic or the excitement that was created by that final result.
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