Canada storms back from 18-point, 3rd-quarter deficit to stun Serbia
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After losing their momentum built from a strong start, Canada looked dead in the water against Serbia on Monday, trailing 52-34 midway through the third quarter. From that point on, though, it was all Canada all the time, as they came storming back from nowhere to shock the 2015 EuroBasket champs, 71-67, to improve to 2-0 in group play.
Serbia was dominant in the second quarter and the first part of the third, building their lead with a potent inside-out game run through power forward Jelena Milovanovic and guard Ana Dabovic. The Canadian women started to claw their way back immediately after the Serbs opened up their biggest lead of the game, going on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to just seven. But the Serbs rattled off five quick points to close the third quarter, and entered the final frame with a comfortable 12-point cushion.
In a manic fourth quarter, though, Canada played like a team with nothing to lose, while Serbia was reduced to a jumble of nerves. Riding a hyper-aggressive defense that occasionally employed the full-court press, Canada forced scads of turnovers, which they promptly converted into points at the other end. They got massively clutch shooting, a crucial fourth-quarter contribution from reserve guard Nirra Fields, and an all-around brilliant performance from guard Kia Nurse.
Nurse torched Serbia from all over the floor. She shot 7-of-11 from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, and when the Serbs tried to take away her shot, she knifed into the paint to hit layups, draw contact, and find open shooters with kick-outs. She went to the line a game-high 10 times (hitting eight), scored a game-high 25 points, and matched a game high with five assists.
Fields, who'd scarcely played until the fourth, came in with some much-needed energy, and ended up playing nearly the entire quarter. She dropped eight points in under 10 minutes of action - including a clutch triple that tied the game for the first time in the second half - and finished a game-high plus-16. Forward Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe made her interior presence known under both hoops, stifling Serbia drives at one end and sucking up offensive rebounds at the other. Her three-point play off an o-board, with under a minute left, proved to be the game-winning points.
That play put the Canadians up a point, and they got the ball back with 32 seconds to play when Sonja Petrovic was whistled for traveling. On their final possession, Nurse milked the clock, drove into the lane, and kicked the ball to point guard Miah-Marie Langlois for a wide-open 3-point look.
Langlois hadn't scored all game, but she made no mistake, burying the dagger to drop Serbia to 0-2.