It was a big night for North American youth basketball, but Canada came up one podium step short of making it the best night ever.
The United States, with a dominant fourth quarter, defeated Canada 84-64 on Sunday to win its sixth title at the FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup in Leon, Mexico.
It was Canada’s inaugural appearance in the gold-medal final and its first podium finish at the event since 2012, when the squad collected bronze with an 84-77 victory over Japan in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Jerzy Robinson led the powerful champions with 25 points and seven rebounds, while teammate McKenna Woliczko chipped in with 19. The U.S. led 41-30 at halftime and 59-51 heading into the final quarter.
Savannah Swords scored a team-high 15 points for Canada, which only trailed by three points with four minutes left in the third quarter.
Deniya Prawl chipped in with 13 points and Agot Akol Makeer added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Canada, which slipped past Spain 77-73 in Saturday’s semifinal action. The U.S. advanced to the final with an 84-66 win over France in Saturday’s other semifinal.
The U.S. held an edge over Canada in shooting percentage (40.7 to 33.9), rebounds (58-41), offensive rebounds (24-12), defensive rebounds (34-29), points off turnovers (22-13) and points from the bench (24-22).
Canada led in steals (10-8) and blocks (8-3).
The two teams met in the 2023 FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship final last summer.