Canada on last leg at Olympic women’s basketball qualifier; cannot hold lead vs. Croatia

Wonky shooting continues to be a roadblock for Canad's women's basketball team on its route to the London Games.

Canadian basketball teams often have to do it the hard way — and this country's women's basketball team now has the hardest route to the Olympics after a 59-56 quarter-final loss to Croatia at the FIBA qualifier in Ankara, Turkey. Canada went toe-to-toe with a great basketball nation and led by five points entering the final quarter. However, on a night when it shot only an effective 33.3 per cent from the floor (23-for-72 with two three-pointers), it went cold for five minutes in the fourth and allowed Croatia to make its move and make its first Olympics. Former University of Vermont star Courtnay Pilypaitis had a game-high 11 points and veteran guard Teresa Gabriele added nine and a team-high seven rebounds. Canada will face the Argentina-Turkey loser on Saturday. Japan and Korea are on the other half of the battle for the last ticket to London. So, really, Friday was a huge missed opportunity, even though Canada played its game.

"It's one thing to look back and think that we used to bring this team over and lose by 40 to everybody in Europe and you'd think, 'good God, are we ever going to be good enough to compete?' " Canada coach Alison McNeill said. "We feel good that we're at this tournament and playing well. We felt that we could beat Croatia. They shoot the ball extremely well and play four smalls around one big [6-foot-7 post Luca Ivankovic]. We had 18 offensive rebounds, we took 20 more shots than them and at the end of the day, we didn't make enough shots.

"We're not a great shooting nation and we're not a great shooting team. We did a great job defensively, I think they only made two three-pointers. Just not enough shots fell. I thought the kids played really hard and had opportunities and it just didn't happen.

"There were no tears. You just have to get back on the horse and play again tomorrow."

Canada trailed by as much as 11 points in the first half. However, Canada took Croatia guard Andja Jelavic (six points, five assists), whose dribble penetration had vexed Canada in the opening 20 minutes, largely out of the game. They also adapted well to the Croatians' ball screen offence and outscored them 20-8 in the quarter, a dozen-point swing.

Jelavic rested an injury when Canada beat Croatia by 17 points in a pre-tournament game.

However, Canada, whose stock-in-trade is executing precisely on offence, wasn't able to cash in the fourth quarter. During that span, Croatia's Iva Ciglar made two huge baskets, a beat-the-shot-clock layup in traffic after her team had to inbound from its own endline with just six seconds to shoot and a go-ahead three-pointer with 6:07 left.

Croatia never trailed from that point. Canada twice got back on even terms. With just more than three minutes remaining, Pilypaitis and Gabriele each got a look at a three-pointer that would have put Canada back on top, but both shots rattled out.

The shooting struggles (28% from the field in the past two losses and an effective 28.9%) have been persistent. Former WNBA guard Kim Smith was 2-for-13 on Friday and scored just four points.

"It hurts us a little bit that we don't have a domestic league to play in Canada," McNeill said. "As a team, we can compete with people, sometimes individually it's a little more difficult."

A bounce-back game from Smith is probably vital on Saturday.

"She's a very mentally tough athlete," McNeill said. "Teams are really keying on her, a lot of clutching and grabbing. We know we can get her shots. We know that she can make those shots. She's done against the Chinas and the other teams. I have to believe that she's going to come back in these next two games [Saturday's match and Sunday if Canada wins]."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.