Canadian women’s basketball team begins Olympics with win over China

RIO DE JANEIRO – The ball was moving and the three-pointers were dropping for the Canadian women’s basketball team in their opening game at the Rio Olympics against China. Canada beat China 90-68 on Saturday afternoon at the Youth Arena on the strength of its impressive depth.

"I looked at the stat sheet and it had 41 points off the bench,” said head coach Lisa Thomaidis. "I think that kind of sums it up. We can roll people in, different threats around the floor at different times. We believe in every single player that we have. All 12 of them can go in and give us something and it was great to see that expressed today.

Tamara Tatham led the way offensively with 20 points, going 4-for-4 from beyond the three-point arc. and the team will be especially pleased with the 31 assists they racked up and the 11-for-17 shooting performance from three.

When the offence is flowing, it makes it that much easier to keep every player on the roster engaged. Thomaidis also has the luxury of using a large number of lineup combinations due to the team's versatility and unselfish attitude.

It's how Canada can manage a 22-point win despite an off-game from Kia Nurse. The University of Connecticut star went 0-for-6 from the field with her five points coming at the free-throw line. But even as she battled through the shooting woes she was a team-best plus-16, a testament to how she takes pride in her defence and being a facilitator for her teammates.

"It was a very good way to start off. (It gives us) a good momentum for us to build on and we played really well as a team," said Nurse.

Canada's next group stage game is against Serbia on Monday afternoon.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr