Canada Basketball announced Thursday the Canadian Men’s and Women’s 3x3 National Teams who will represent Canada this weekend at the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup 2023, which includes Manitoba's Chad Posthumus.
After being held in Miami for the last two years, the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup shifts to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and will run from Thursday, November 30, 2023, to Sunday, December 3, 2023. Fans in Canada can catch all the action streaming live this weekend on the FIBA 3x3 YouTube page.
Paige Crozon, Kacie Bosch, Jamie Scott and Saicha Grant-Allen will represent Canada on the women’s side and will be looking to defend Canada’s FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup 2022 title from a year ago. Crozon and Bosch, ranked seventh and seventeenth, respectively, in the FIBA 3x3 Women’s Individual World Rankings, along with Katherine and Michelle Plouffe, captured gold last November in Miami. Scott returns after making three appearances (Québec, Prague, Bordeaux) this past summer in the FIBA 3x3 Women's Series, while Grant-Allen will make just her second 3x3 appearance for Canada after playing in the FIBA 3x3 Women's Series Debrecen Stop 2023 in August.
Seeded second in the tournament, the Canadian women will open the competition on December 1 against the winner of QD B/I (Colombia, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Cayman Islands) at 3:40 p.m. ET before taking on Brazil at 7:20 p.m. ET.
Based on their FIBA 3x3 ranking and finish at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2023, Canada’s women have secured spots in both FIBA 3x3 Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournaments next year in advance of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
On the men’s side, Bik Gill, Alex Johnson, Dele Ogundokun, who finished sixth in the competition last year, will again represent Canada. The trio, who made several FIBA 3x3 Challenger and World Tour stops this past season as Team Toronto – including winning the 3x3 PRO League Netherlands 2023 Winter Edition - Final – will add Chad Posthumus to the team, who will make his 3x3 national team debut this weekend.
Like the women, Canada’s men are also seeded second and will face the winner of QD D/I (Saint Lucia, Ecuador, Cayman Islands) on December 1 at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by the winner of QD A/I (Uruguay, Barbados, Colombia) at 8:10 p.m. ET in Pool B play.
With a first-place finish in the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup 2023, Canada would also secure a berth in next year’s FIBA 3x3 Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2 after already having secured a spot in the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament based on their current world ranking.
A record 34 national teams (19 men / 15 women) will compete this weekend to become 3x3 champions of the Americas. The top two teams in each pool will qualify for a direct elimination bracket, starting with the quarter-finals.
The action begins Thursday with a full slate of qualifying draw games before pool play on Friday and Saturday and the medal rounds on Sunday. The full matchup schedule is available on the official FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup website.
Canada is currently ranked 7th (Women), 14th (Men) and 7th (Combined) in the FIBA 3x3 Federation Rankings. Canada’s women’s team is ranked first in the FIBA 3x3 Team Rankings, while Team Toronto on the men’s side is ranked 26th.