‍TORONTO (June 2, 2023) – Canada Basketball announced Friday the 15 players representing Canada in exhibition action against Japan this weekend in Victoria, B.C.

Canada will face No.9 ranked Japan, the defending silver medallists from the Tokyo 2020 Games, tonight at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. PT.  Tickets are still available via www.selectyourtickets.com or at the box office.

‍The teams will also meet in two closed-door games on Saturday, June 3 and Monday, June 5, to complete the three-game series.

‍On Sunday, team members will be guest coaches at a sold-out Superfan Nav Bhatia Basketball Camp, the first time the event will be held in Victoria.

‍The Rim-to-Rim exhibition series will celebrate the Pacific Rim rivalry between Canada and Japan, marking the first time in over 20 years that Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team has played a game in Victoria.

Before arriving in Victoria, the team held a training camp in Edmonton, home of the Senior Women’s National team since 2013, from May 22-29 at the Saville Community Sports Centre.

The Edmonton training camp and Victoria exhibition games make up the first phase of preparation as the team sets their sights on the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023 in Mexico, July 1-9, at the legendary Domo de la Feria in León de los Aldama, the host city in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023 will feature the top ten teams in the zone competing in the most prestigious senior women’s basketball tournament in the Americas.  Last week, Canada was drawn into Group B for the competition and will face the host nation Mexico (July 2, time TBD) Puerto Rico (July 3, time TBD), Colombia (July 4, time TBD), and Dominican Republic (July 5, time TBD) in the Group Phase.

With the USA having already secured a spot at next year's Olympic Games in Paris, the best-performing team outside the USA will automatically advance to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament in February 2024.  The following three best teams will play in the regional FIBA Women’s Pre-Olympic Qualifying tournaments in November 2023.

The team is coming off a fourth-place finish at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022, the team's best finish at the World Cup since a third-place finish in 1986.

Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team is ranked fifth in the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike after the rankings were updated following the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022.