DEVELOPMENT WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM WINS SILVER MEDAL AT FISU GAMES

(TORONTO, ON) – The Development Women’s National Team made history at the 2015 FISU Games, winning a silver medal after falling [score] to the USA in Gwangju, Korea. The second-place finish is Canada’s best at the World University Games and it is Canada’s first medal since 1991. Previously, Team Canada won bronze in 1979 and 1991.”Tough finish for us and this is the loss that hurts the most because of the reward on the other side. They were able to get into the paint too easily and we didn’t execute well at the offensive end,” said Head Coach Fabian McKenzie.

“However we come out of this Universiade with the best finish ever for Canada. A silver medal is a great accomplishment. This is a big part of the development stream in our program. Our mission was to help the athletes learn how to reach the podium and they accomplished this. Hopefully they learn from the experience and use it in the future with our national team program.”

The game started close, but the tables turned in favour of the USA in the second quarter, as Canada struggled with turnovers and rebounds. Defensively, the USA built up 20 defensive rebounds and six blocked shots in the first half to lead 31-23 heading into the break.

Canada came alive in the third going on a 10-4 run in the first three minutes to make it a two-point game. The red and white played a smart ten minutes and were neck and neck with the Americans, outscoring them 22-17 in the frame.

However, in the fourth, the US rode a wave of experience and used their size in the paint and outside scoring ability to build a twenty-point lead that the Canadians could not recover.

“We waited too long to fight. But when we did we played very well as a team. We wanted gold of course, but we cannot overlook that we are second in the world for our age category. I am happy I got to experience this history-making with this group,” said Adut Bulgak.

“We are tremendously proud of this group of young women who will be coming home with a medal. Our staff did a great job preparing the athletes for this level of international competition,” said Denise Dignard, Director of Women’s High Performance.

“Our development program and its participation in FISU Games is an important part of helping our women’s national team athletes gain international mileage and experience at a major multi-sport Games.”

For full box score, click here.

For the full silver-medal winning roster and coaching staff, click here.