Humboldt native Paige Crozon and her 3x3 Women's Basketball team last played in a series stop in Saskatoon, which followed their fourth-place Olympic finish in August (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

3x3 Women's Final

Crozon, Team Canada look to finish on top to end Olympic year

Sep 5, 2024 | 12:25 PM

The Canadian Women’s 3×3 basketball team has left for Hangzhou, China with the goal of becoming back-to-back-to-back world champions.

After what the team stated wasn’t their greatest performance at the Olympics this year, finishing fourth place in Paris, they’re looking forward to getting back on top of the world podium.

“We always want to be great,” said Humboldt native and team member, Paige Crozon. “I think our team does a really good job of not dwelling on the past either, and we left everything we possibly had on the court in France. We always want to have fun and I think that’s something we’re going to bring into the final.”

“Our season has been really interesting and so different because of the intensity of preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers and then the actual games themselves. I’ll be honest when I say that’s where most of our focus has been, however, our team has a standard of excellence, and every time we step on the court, we hold each other to that,” she continued.

The last series stop this group made was actually in Saskatoon, as the competitive circuit came to Saskatchewan for the first time.

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Canada had plenty of fun at that tournament, both walking away with a victory and receiving unbelievable levels of support from the home crowds.

“The last two weeks have been a matter of resting and recovering from being at the Olympics and the magnitude of that tournament, while also getting ourselves ready and prepared for this women’s series final. I feel like we’ve had so many reps and so much time together that we’ll be ready to play, so we’re just really excited for the opportunity,” Crozon added.

“When we were on the court in Saskatoon, it was so joyous, we had such a warm reception from the crowd, and everyone was telling us how proud they were of our Olympic performance. I think that definitely uplifted our spirits and now we’ve had a few weeks to rest, recover, and process everything that happened to get ready for another major tournament.”

The ladies donning the Maple Leaf will get to see some familiar competition this weekend, as they’ll repeat some significant Olympic battles.

Their first game of the event will be against Spain, as they duel it out with the Olympic silver medalists, who beat them in overtime in France.

“We lost to Spain on a last-second shot in overtime, and now we face them in our round-robin, so I’m so excited to have the opportunity to play against them again, and hopefully, get a win since we lost to them in our last game,” Croon told northeastNOW.

“Ultimately, I think our success will be about how we play, doing the things that we do well, playing as a team, and sticking to our defensive gameplan. I think that will be our focus, however, I think we’ll have a little more incentives and motivation to play against Spain and France and some of the teams that we saw at the Olympics.”

The World Final tournament begins Saturday at 2 a.m. Saskatchewan time, with the final beginning at 6:50 a.m. Saskatchewan time, on Sunday.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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