 Canada made it to the final four of the Women's Basketball World Cup for the first time in 36 years. Now comes the hard part. | | | Last night's 79-60 win over Puerto Rico gave Canada its first trip to the semifinals of the Women's Basketball World Cup since 1986. To put that timespan in perspective, the '86 tournament (then known as the World Championship for Women) was played in the Soviet Union and no one on Canada's current roster had been born yet. The Canadians lost their semifinal to the eventual-champion United States but went on to win the bronze medal by beating Czechoslovakia. Canada's leading scorer in that game, Bev Smith, is now 62 years old.
Leading the way for Canada last night was 26-year-old guard Kia Nurse, who scored a team-high 17 points (on 6-of-12 shooting) with four rebounds and a pair of assists. This tournament is the first action for Canada's most productive WNBA player since she tore an ACL nearly a full year ago, causing her to miss the Phoenix Mercury's entire season. Nurse has started all six Canadian games and, with the exception of a blowout win over Mali in the group-stage finale, has seen her minutes steadily increase with each outing. Her 17 points and 24 minutes last night were both personal highs for the tournament.
Four other Canadians scored in double figures against Puerto Rico, led by Bridget Carleton with 15. The 25-year-old forward for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx is Canada's leading scorer, averaging 14.8 points per game. Thirty-one-year-old Canadian centre Kayla Alexander, who grabbed 13 boards vs. Puerto Rico, is the tournament's second-leading rebounder with 11.7 per game.
Everything seems to be clicking for Canada, which is 5-1 in its first tournament under new head coach Víctor Lapeña, the Spaniard hired to replace Lisa Thomaidis after her fourth-ranked team failed to advance past the group stage at the Olympics last summer. Still No. 4, Canada's only defeat at the World Cup was a narrow 75-72 decision vs. third-ranked host Australia in the group stage.
Things are about to get real, though. Canada's opponent for its semifinal game on Friday at 3 a.m. ET is the United States — a Death Star of a squad whose entire 12-person roster is made up of WNBA players (Canada has three: Nurse, Carleton and centre Natalie Achonwa). The Americans have reigning WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson, former MVP Breanna Stewart, this year's Finals MVP Chelsea Gray, and recent U.S. collegiate player of the year Sabrina Ionescu, plus a bunch more all-stars.
Last night's 88-55 quarter-final win over Serbia was the United States' 28th consecutive victory in the World Cup (they haven't lost in this event since 2006). By American standards, that was actually a close game. They won their five group-stage "contests" by an average of 46 points. In addition to winning the past three World Cups, the U.S. is on a run of seven straight Olympic gold medals.
To be blunt, Canada's odds of beating the U.S. are not good. The betting markets illustrate the cold reality: the Americans are favoured by 23.5 points, and the moneyline prices imply Canada has just a 6 per cent chance of winning the game.
The good news is that, even if the Canadians lose, they'll still get to play for a medal. The third-place game goes Friday at 11 p.m. ET vs. the loser between Australia and seventh-ranked China. The final is Saturday at 2 a.m. ET. The winner of that game earns a spot in the 2024 Olympics. Everyone else must go through qualifying tournaments. Read more about Canada's quarter-final win over Puerto Rico and watch highlights here. | | |  | Kia Nurse scored a Canadian-high 17 points in today's quarter-final win over Puerto Rico. Now comes a much tougher obstacle in the powerhouse United States team. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) | | | Quickly… | | | The Canadian women's volleyball team got its first win at the world championship. After straight-sets losses to Serbia and the reigning Olympic champion United States to open the tournament, Canada defeated another 0-2 team, Kazakhstan, in straight sets today in Poland. The top four teams from each pool advance, and Canada (1-2) currently sits fourth in Pool C. The Canadians' final two matches in this stage are Friday at 10 a.m. ET vs. Bulgaria (0-3) and Saturday at 10 a.m. ET vs. Germany (2-1). Watch both matches live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Read about Canada's Shannon Winzer, the only female head coach in the 24-team tournament, in this story by CBC Sports' Signa Butler.
Canada will face the rival U.S. in another Para hockey gold-medal game. Yesterday's 4-1 victory over the host Czech Republic at the International Para Hockey Cup set up a rematch of last winter's Paralympic final in Beijing, where the Americans beat Canada 5-0 to win their fourth straight gold. The rivals' latest clash goes Friday at 1 p.m. ET. In Wednesday's semifinal vs. the Czechs, Dominic Cozzolino scored twice for Canada and captain Tyler McGregor had a goal and two assists. Read more about the game here. | | | And finally… | | | A Blue Jays fan named Frankie Lasagna just missed catching Aaron Judge's 61st home run ball.
Sounds cheesy, but this story has a lot of layers (sorry).
Last night in Toronto, Judge launched his 61st homer of the season to tie Roger Maris' 61-year-old American League record. As the ball soared toward the seats above the left-field bullpen, a bunch of fans in the front row wearing baseball gloves scrambled to reach over the railing and grab it. Alas, it smacked into the wall below them, just a couple of feet from their grasp — an agonizing result considering the record-tying ball was estimated by sports memorabilia experts to be worth around $250,000 US. Jays bullpen coach Matt Buschmann handed it over to the Yankees (presumably for free).
Now for the delicious twist: one of the guys who nearly snagged the ball is a 37-year-old Toronto restaurant owner who goes by the name Frankie Lasagna. It's unclear whether that's his real name (though, given his vocation, what are the odds?). "Two more feet and I would have had it," lamented Lasagna, who is the guy in the baby-blue Jays jersey in this video.
Last night's game, which ended in an 8-3 Yankee win that prevented Toronto from clinching a wild-card playoff berth, was the series finale. New York fans will get the next crack at catching a record-breaking ball off the bat of Judge, whose team opens a three-game set vs. Baltimore in the Bronx on Friday night before closing the regular season with four games at Texas. The ball from potential home run No. 62 is anticipated to be worth north of a million bucks, though that number would presumably come down if Judge were to add to the record. His final home-run ball of the season is the one everyone wants. Read more about Judge's 61st homer and watch it here. Read more about Frankie Lasagna's half-baked quest to catch it here. | | | Coming up on CBC Sports | | | This newsletter is off tomorrow as the company observes the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We'll return Monday.
The live-stream offerings on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem from Friday through Sunday include Canada's matches at the women's volleyball world championship in Poland, a pro beach volleyball tournament in Paris, a 3-on-3 basketball World Tour stop in the Philippines, the annual Panda Game between Ontario university football rivals Carleton and Ottawa, and curling's inaugural Mixed Doubles Super Series event in Ottawa. See the full CBC Sports streaming and broadcast schedule here.
Also, That Curling Show is live tonight at 7 p.m. ET on the CBC Sports YouTube channel and the CBC Olympics Twitter and Facebook feeds. Hosts Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones and their guests will assess how the new-look teams are doing so far and preview the new Mixed Doubles Super Series. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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