3x3 Women's Series in Eaubonne - Pool Stage Recap

Hidden away in the Parisian suburb of Eaubonne, the latest stop in the 2022 3x3 Women's Series got underway on Friday. Just a week after the last 3x3 tournament in Quebec City, where Canada fell short of going all the way on home soil, there was now the chance for them to quickly get back to winning ways.

Team mainstay Michelle Plouffe was without her sister, but joined by team regulars Paige Crozon and Kacie Bosch, with Catherine Traer completing the Canadian quartet. This was going to be a very different tournament though, with an eclectic mix of teams also making the trip to France that would make for an unpredictable day of basketball in France.

As always, the tournament began with the teams separated into four pools of three teams each, the top two from each earning spots in the knockout stage on day two. Canada opened the Eaubonne tournament in Pool A against Mongolia, falling behind early on but asserted themselves with eight points unanswered, which included three two-pointers in a row.

Plouffe and Crozon kept adding to the lead, which reached nine points, brought back down by Chimeddolgor Enkhtaivan stealing points for Mongolia. Yet Canada were firmly in control and finished off proceedings with six points in just under a minute, closing out the opener as winners 22-10.

From here they faced France Under-24, the second French team competing in Eaubonne. Plouffe had the first four points of the game with Kacie Bosch adding to their early lead, though France Under-24 kept it a single-possession game from close range.

Canada kept attempting a break away but were continually reigned in, with Océane Monpierre tying the scores ahead of the final stretch. With time winding down, Kacie Bosch maintained the Canadian advantage by drawing fouls and keeping her cool from the stripe, hitting five points to bring the team to what would be a final score of 18-12.

With these wins Canada were guaranteed the top spot in Pool A and would had to wait to the very last minute to see who their next opponents would be. It would be the runners-up of Pool C, which began with Portugal upsetting the hosts with a late two-point win over the French, who needed overtime to beat the Czech Republic and stay alive in their home tournament.

In the final game of Pool C, the last-minute heroics of Kristýna Brabencová saved the Czechs from a slender loss to Portugal, not only winning them the game by one put the pool as well. With the places decided by scoring, France's win was just enough to see them face Canada as pool runners-up at the expense of the Portuguese.

Elsewhere, Spain breezed into the knockout stage with blowout wins over Dusseldorf and Netherlands Under-24, the teams who were then left to fight it out for the last place out of Pool B.

Led by the all-around offence of Aoi Katsura, Dusseldorf's lead over the Dutch kept increasing, reaching as high as eight points midway through their game. In the last thirty seconds the Dutch brought the gap down to a single point, but Katsura and Yuka Maeda sank the final daggers to ensure victory for Dusseldorf, and their safe passage through

It was a similar story in Pool D: China opened with a ten-point win over Turkey and secured their spot on day two with a back-and-forth 17-13 win over Ulaanbaatar. When the two met to decide second place the Mongolians' outside shooting propelled them to a big early lead, only for Ebru Torun to narrow it down in the latter part of the game.

Ebru gave her all to try and keep Turkey alive in Eaubonne, but Ulaanbaatar were relentless in the low post and outscored Turkey 3-1 in the final moments of this match-up. The winners by 21 points to 17, the Mongolian club advance past the pool and into the quarter finals.

The first day in Eaubonne had been a big success for the Canadian team, who are hoping for more of the same when they return to the court the next day. Winning against France on Saturday will see them go on to face the winner of the China-Dusseldorf semi-final. On the other end of the bracket Spain and Ulaanbaatar will face off on day two, ahead of Czech Republic and France Under-24, the winners of each making up the other semi final.

Check back here to see how it all went down in France on day two and for more follow this link to head over to the official 3x3 Women's Series website.