Canada's Kacie Bosch (4), Katherine Plouffe (2), Paige Crozon (7) and Michelle Plouffe (1) celebrate after a women's 3x3 basketball pool round match against Azerbaijan during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. Canada won 21-19. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Frank Franklin II)

By The Canadian Press - Gemma Karstens-Smith

Local Olympian

Canada downs Azerbaijan 21-19 in 3×3 basketball at Paris Olympics

Aug 3, 2024 | 12:35 PM

Canada’s 3×3 women’s basketball team had another close call on Saturday.

This time, they came out on the right side, edging Azerbaijan 21-19 in the final game of pool play at the Paris Olympics.

The victory closed out Canada’s preliminary round at the tournament and followed a frustrating Friday that saw the squad drop a pair of overtime decisions to the United States and Spain.

“The close games they really take the energy out of you,” said guard Kacie Bosch. “And winning a close game puts all that energy back in. So it’s good for us.”

Katherine Plouffe put up seven points for the Canadians and Paige Crozon contributed six.

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Tiffany Hayes led Azerbaijan with nine points while Alexandra Mollenhauer had seven.

The two sides traded buckets early and the Canadians held an 11-10 lead at the halfway mark.

Michelle Plouffe hit a two-point shot from well above the arc with 1:27 left on the clock, boosting Canada’s lead to 19-16. Azerbaijan then rallied with three straight points to level the score with 47 seconds to play.

Michelle Plouffe drove in for a one-pointer that regained the lead, then dished off to her twin sister, Katherine, who sunk the game-winning basket.

“Every win that we can get here at the Olympic Games is huge,” Michelle Plouffe said after the game. “And so we’re just going to take this and get ready for the quarterfinals which is do or die.”

Canada went 4-3 in the preliminary round and is expected to be back in action for the play-in games later on Saturday.

The top two teams in the eight-team tournament will advance straight to Monday’s semifinals, while the next four teams will advance to the two play-in matchups.

Asked who she’d like to see in the later game, Michelle Plouffe was blunt.

“We don’t really care who we play,” she said. “We’d like a rematch with anyone, really.”

The hours in between games will be crucial, she added, with the players looking to recover, refuel and prepare as much — and as quickly — as possible.

“We’ll kind of just be taking a look at what we did well, what we can improve on for the next game, recovering, getting some nourishment of some kind in — whatever we can eat — and then waiting to see who we got,” Plouffe said.