The rematch of the 2015 FIBA Americas Women's Championship turned into a showcase for a new-look Canadian roster.
UConn's Kia Nurse had six points and rebounds in 15 minutes while former UCLA star Nirra Fields led three players in double figures with 18 points as defending champion Canada opened the FIBA AmeriCup event with a surprisingly routine 81-35 win over Cuba.
Ruth Hamblin had 15 points and 10 rebounds while Jamie Scott added 12 points for Canada.
Anisleidy Galindo had 12 points and four steals for Cuba.
Canada plays Puerto Rico on Monday. Manchester's Ashley Perez had seven points, four rebounds and two steals as Puerto Rico opened the tournament with a 69-49 win over Mexico.
"Great to get the first game under our belt against a traditionally tough opponent in Cuba," Canada head coach Lisa Thomaidis said in a release on the Canada Basketball site. "There were a lot of question marks coming into the tournament in terms of our style of play and how we would integrate some new players. I think we past our first test. We worked on pushing the pace and tempo and thought we did a solid job of that in the first quarter and built on that throughout the game. This by no means is Cuba's best effort and we imagine we will see them again later in the tournament, but certainly happy with the win."
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