By Canadian Press

Ayim leads Canada past China 74-62 at Edmonton Grads International Classic

Jul 13, 2016 | 4:35 PM

EDMONTON — Miranda Ayim scored 15 points off the bench as Canada’s senior women’s basketball team beat China 74-62 on Sunday in Game 2 of the Edmonton Grads International Classic.

Nirra Fields added 12 and Katherine Plouffe scored nine for Canada. Sun Meng-ran and Huang Si-jang each had 15 points for China.

Canada defeated China 82-63 in Game 1 of the event on Saturday, but this game was much tighter, with neither side leading by more than six until midway through the fourth, and no more than four points separating the teams for nearly all of the second and third quarters.

“We were talking about this last night: China’s a good team and they had literally just travelled from China to come play here,” Ayim said. “They weren’t exactly themselves last night and we knew that they were going to come back and give us a better game today and that’s what we need. We need a challenging game and lots of pressure so we know what to do when we see that at the Olympics.”

Canada assisted on 25 of its 27 field goals. Shona Thorburn led Canada with eight assists, while Fields, Lizanne Murphy, and Miah-Marie Langlois each had four. Canada also forced China into 25 turnovers.

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Game 2 started much like the previous night’s contest, with points hard to come by in the early going. Ayim provided a spark for Canada with six points in the first quarter, but China came away with an 18-13 lead after 10 minutes. Canada scored the first six points of the second period to go in front by one and maintained a lead for most of the quarter, ending the first half with a 36-33 advantage.

China pulled even early in the second half and the teams went back and forth during a spirited third quarter that featured several ties, multiple lead changes, and ended with Canada held a 51-50 lead. Canada started the fourth on a 9-2 run, jumping ahead 60-52 in what to that point had been the biggest lead of the game for either team. China would get no closer than eight as Canada was able to seal the victory.

“China definitely played better, so it forced us to have to be better and it’s so beneficial to be in a tight game like that,” said Canadian coach Lisa Thomaidis. “We want to be forced to execute and handle a little bit of pressure and things like that, so we probably did play better than we did last night.”

Canada and China conclude the EGIC with Game 3 on Monday.

The Canadian Press