Canada beats France, remains undefeated at FIBA women's World Cup

SYDNEY, Australia — It took less than five minutes for Canada's women's basketball team to turn Friday's World Cup game versus France into a romp.

The Canadians' 17-0 run that straddled the second and third quarters surprised even coach Victor Lapena.

"17? I didn't know," Lapena said, with raised eyebrows, in the post-game press conference. "Fantastic."

Nirra Fields scored 17 points, while Kayla Alexander had a game-high 14 rebounds plus nine points and the Canadians (2-0) beat France 59-45 to remain the only undefeated team in Group B.

Shay Colley added 11 points for the Canadians, who never trailed and led by as many as 20 points.

"We played really good team basketball today, especially on the defensive end, we were really locked in on the game plan, what the coaches asked of us," Alexander said.

Gabby Williams scored 13 points to top France.

The Canadians' victory came two days after a 67-60 win over Serbia, and all but clinches a spot in the quarterfinals as the top four teams in each group advance. A high finish in the preliminary round, and a significant point differential, will be key to avoiding the Americans in the knockout round.

No. 6 France, meanwhile, was coming up a 67-59 upset of third-ranked Australia, but looked nothing like that victorious team against a smothering Canadian defence.

"I like that we switch up our defences because it throws the opponents off track usually, it can get them out of their rhythm and it just shows as a team that we're locked in and that we're able to actually execute when coach throws something else out there," Alexander said. "So, I actually like being able to mix it up and throwing something different at our opponents, trying to get them up off their feet a bit."

It was the