Canada’s women’s basketball squad to host Japan in exhibition in Victoria

VICTORIA – Canada’s women’s basketball team is set to host Japan in a June exhibition game, Canada Basketball announced Tuesday.

The contest will take place June 2 at Victoria’s Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

Canada is ranked No. 5 in the world. Japan, meanwhile, is ninth, but is the reigning Olympic silver medallist.

The Canadian team will have a training camp from May 22-29 in Edmonton. The game will be a month out from the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023, which will run July 1-9 in León, Guanajuato in Mexico.

Of the 10 teams at the AmeriCup, eight will advance to the FIBA Women’s Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament for the Americas, Nov. 5-13, while the top two teams will move directly to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024 in February.

Canada 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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.