Canada's finally in the win column in women's basketball at the 2020 Summer Olympics after defeating Korea 74-53 on Thursday, but the team won't be able to rest on its laurels.
Having fallen to Serbia in the preliminary round opener, the Canadians needed a victory against the Koreans to keep their medal hopes alive. Placed in a tough group with Serbia and Korea, Lisa Thomaidis's squad will have its biggest test to close out the round-robin portion of the tournament as a match-up with world No. 3 Spain looms on Sunday.
The Spaniards lead the group after winning each of their two group-stage games thus far, and they'll be favored to remain perfect against the Canadians.
However, a loss to Spain could put the second-place Canucks in a precarious position as only the top two teams from each group are guaranteed qualification for the quarterfinals and Serbia will be expected to defeat Korea a few hours later. The two best third-place finishers also move on to the knockouts, but Canada's hoping the momentum earned from Thursday's victory will continue against the Spainards and that its fate won't be placed in the hands of teams from other groups.
“I said the other day in our team meeting that any win in the Olympics is something to be celebrated so we’re going to take today and we’re going to relish the moment,” forward Natalie Achonwa said following the win over Korea. “We will enjoy it today, and tomorrow when we start to prepare for Spain, it’s a whole different ball game.”
Thomaidis echoed Achonwa's thoughts, also stressing the importance of keeping things rolling in the group-stage finale.
“We were building off the momentum we created in the second half of our game against Serbia," the head coach said. "We wanted to bring that forward into today [against Korea]. Our goal is to play 40 minutes of Canada basketball and I thought we got closer to that today.”