Canada's 3x3 Women's National Team defeated China 17-16 to capture the FIBA 3x3 Women's Series Poitiers Stop in Poitiers, France after going undefeated over two days to pick up their first Series Stop win of the season.

Canada started Day 2 with a dominant 21-12 victory against Team USA in the quarterfinals before advancing to a semifinals match-up against Gyor. Canada took down the Hungarian team 18-10 to book their ticket to the finals where they faced off against China in a nail-biter that went down to the final seconds before prevailing with a 17-16 victory and the Series Stop win.

“I think we’ve been trying to figure out how to find a way to grow from the end of last season," Kacie Bosch said. "It’s taken a little bit, but we feel we’ve found our rhythm and our flow and the things that we feel have been missing in the past two tournaments have shown up for us in this tournament. Our chemistry off court lends itself so we can trust each other, especially at times when we feel our form isn’t where it was last season. Having that trust in each other and knowing we’ll find it, it all clicked this tournament for us and that was really cool.”

Katherine Plouffe was named MVP of the event, finishing with a Series Stop best 34.5 Top Player Value, while also leading the event in rebounding (40) and key assists (12). Michelle Plouffe and Paige Crozon were first and second in scoring with 32 and 31 points scored, respectively. Canada led all teams with 19 two-pointers in Poitiers, nearling doubling the next closest team, as Lithuania was second with 11 made two-pointers.

“I love Poitiers,” Michelle Plouffe said after the win against China. 

The Finals matchup was close from beginning to end. A two-pointer from Michelle Plouffe opened the scoring, but China came back to immediately tie the game. The teams traded baskets until an offensive putback for Crozon put Canada in front by a point, 5-4, with 7:20 remaining. Katherine Plouffe found a cutting Michelle Plouffe for a layup and then Michelle Plouffe scored inside to make it 8-5 Canada.

A two from Crozon doubled up the score, giving Canada a 10-5 advantage at the midway point, but China didn’t fade as Yujie Chen scored inside for China and then Ji Yuan Wan scored to get China within three with under four minutes remaining.

A long two-pointer from Wan trimmed Canada’s lead to two points. Wan scored again, this time getting China within a point, but a layup from Michelle Plouffe extended Canada’s lead back to two. Bosch had one of the biggest plays of the game when she grabbed an offensive rebound and drilled a two-point shot to extend Canada’s advantage to five points. A two from Wan and then a layup from Chen brought China within a point with under a minute remaining, but Canada was able to prevent China from scoring again and held on to the 17-16 victory.

“I think for me, [my shooting comes from] having confidence in myself because I know that my teammates have confidence in me,” Bosch said. “Finding my shot, they keep telling me to shoot. Those are the shots I have to take to keep the teams honest and it also just gets my teammates open. Them encouraging me and having that confidence in me and telling me to take those shots is really what clicked from Orleans to Poitier. The flow just felt so good this tournament. We’ve really been communicating and figuring out what we need to do. I feel that we really were able to do that in this series.”

Canada used a balanced-scoring effort to take down the USA, as Michelle Plouffe had five points and four rebounds, Katherine Plouffe had five points and five rebounds, Bosch added four points and three rebounds, and Crozon scored a game-high seven points in the victory. 

After a two-point shot from Bosch to open the scoring, a second two-pointer, also from Bosch, extended Canada’s lead to 6-1 and they didn’t look back. 

Canada shot 6-for-15 from beyond the arc in the victory, compared to just 1-of-6 shooting from deep for the United States. The Canadians also dominated on the glass, out-rebounding the U.S. 18-8, including 8-0 on the offensive glass.

“I think something we do well is stay steady,” Katherine Plouffe said. “We’ve come back from 6-1 against the States before, so we know they’re always gritty, but we’re steady so it works out. I’m super proud of the girls. We stayed steady and fought hard and we just believed in us. It goes a long way.”

In Canada’s 18-10 semifinals victory against Gyor, Katherine Plouffe owned the glass, grabbing 12 rebounds to go with six points. Canada outrebounded Gyor 25-7, including 11-1 on the offensive glass as Katherine Plouffe outrebounded Gyor all by herself.

Up next for Canada will be the FIBA Women’s 3x3 Series Fribourg Stop in Switzerland beginning July 6.