Team Canada wins first stage of 2024 FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series

The Canadian women’s 3×3 basketball team of Kacie Bosch, Paige Crozon, Katherine Plouffe and Michelle Plouffe started the 2024 FIBA Women’s 3×3 Series season in the same way they finished the previous one–with a win. The foursome won the first leg of the circuit in Springfield, USA, on Wednesday.

In action on the half-court at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadians won 20-18 in the final against the United States in a match that required all ten minutes of regulation time.

In the first two minutes of the game, the Americans made a two-point basket and a one-point basket without reply from the Canadians, to take a 5-2 lead. However, before the five-minute mark, the Canadians made a couple of baskets to take an 8-7 lead.

Penalty shots had a big impact on the second half of the match. Neither team had more than a one-point lead until Michelle Plouffe took two penalty shots with 2 minutes 38 seconds left on the clock. The Americans responded in turn, Burdick hitting two penalty shots about a minute later to tie the score at 17-17, but a two-point basket from Crozon restored her team’s lead. Burdick scored another point, but a reply from Katherine Plouffe with 15 seconds left complicated the USA’s possible comeback, as the Americans failed to score on their final possession.

Before facing the Americans in the final, the Canadians beat another American team, Springfield, 21-13 in the semi-final earlier on Wednesday. In Tuesday’s round robin, the Canadian women won all three of their matches, defeating Puerto Rico 21-10, Germany 21-14 and Springfield 18-15.

In September 2023, the Canadian women’s 3×3 basketball team won the FIBA Women’s 3×3 Series Finals tournament for the second year running. Over the course of the season, they had won five tournaments on the circuit.

The quartet of Kacie Bosch, Paige Crozon, Katherine Plouffe and Michelle Plouffe will have the opportunity to qualify for the Olympic 3×3 basketball tournament at the FIBA 3×3 Universal Olympic Qualification Tournament from 3 to 5 May in Utsunomiya, Japan, where one women’s team will qualify for Paris 2024. Three other places in the Olympic tournament will be up for grabs in Debrecen, Hungary from 16 to 19 May. Four countries have already qualified: China, France, Azerbaijan and the United States.