The Canadian women’s 3×3 basketball team knows it is bound for the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the group came close to another tournament win on Saturday in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Just four days after the latter two of Katherine Plouffe, Paige Crozon, Cassandra Sidney Brown and Mackenzie Reagan Smith were named to the Team Canada efforts for Paris 2024, they led the red and white to a second-place finish on Sunday, losing to the host French team in the final 21-12.
Plouffe led the Canadian scoring efforts in the final with five points, going 5/9 from one-point range. Meanwhile, Hortense Limouzin led France’s offence as they found their way to a second tournament win of the season, having also won their hosted tournament in Marseille in May.
Canada took the lead early in the game, but France finished strong, scoring 12 points to Canada’s three down the stretch.
The Canadians beat China’s U24 team and Austria in the group stage on Friday. They then advanced to beat Puerto Rico and the Netherlands in the knockout stages before falling to France in the night’s final matchup on Saturday.
Katherine Plouffe, 31, continued to be a force for Team Canada at the top level and stood out through the weekend, having previously earned MVP honours at the 3×3 Olympic qualification tournament in Debrecen, Hungary, in May.
The Edmonton native ended as the MVP of the weekend’s tournament as well, while Crozon led the overall scoring race with 33 points, three more than her final opponent, France’s Laetitia Guapo.
Ranked second in the world standings after the event, the runner-up finish was Canada’s second podium of the season, having won the event in Springfield, USA, to start the World Series campaign.
After 3×3 basketball debuted in the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020, Canada will send a women’s team to the Games for the first time in Paris 2024, with Katherine Plouffe, her twin sister Michelle Plouffe, Crozon and Kacie Bosch hoping to lead Canada toward the gold medal game on August 5.
