UConn's Nurse, Canada fall to Turkey at FIBA Worlds

UConn incoming freshman Kia Nurse picked up two early fouls and never made an impact as Canada lost to host Turkey to fall to 1-1 in the pool plat portion of the FIBA World Championship for Women.

Nurse missed both of her field-goal attempts, did not score and had one rebound in 20 minutes as Canada lost 55-44.

Canadian national team coach Lisa Thomaidis said that while her team is obviously disappointed with the result, getting to play the host team in what proved to be an electric atmosphere was invaluable.

"What a tremendous night for women's basketball," Thomaidis said. "The place was packed and crowd was into it. They are educated and know the rules. It was really loud in there. As much as it hurts right now it is a really solid performance and one we can build on

"You might get one chance in your lifetime, for our young players to be able to play in that so early in their careers is going to pay off down the road.

"There's not too much we wanted to change/ Nirra (Fields) was a great spark for us and did some good things. There was a stretch when we couldn't get a stop."

With Mozambique losing to France earlier today, Canada is guaranteed to finish in the top three in Pool B and will advance to the next stage. After a day off Canada will play France on Tuesday which is likely a showdown for second or third place in the pool.

"We have a full day to get ready to play France," Thomaidis said. "We are a 100 times better (than after the first game). We will need that same focus and intensity

"We are playing to win but knowing that we are through to next round is tremendous for this team to know."