Jamaica out of Basketball Olympic qualifiers
Published:Thursday | September 29, 2011 | 2:44 PM
Jamaica’s hopes of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics ended last night as they were beaten 66-49 by Canada in their final preliminary round game of the FIBA American Women’s Basketball Championships in Neiva, Colombia.
As a result of the defeat, Jamaica failed to progress to the semi-finals.
It was Jamaica’s third successive defeat after they started their campaign with a 69-64 victory over Mexico on Sunday.
They were beaten 73-50 by gold medal favourites Brazil on Monday and then went down 71-69 to Paraguay on Tuesday.
Nicole Louden led Jamaica with a game-high 22 goals, while Simone Edwards had eight and Vanessa Gidden five.
For the Canadians, Kimberley Smith led the way with 13 goals, while Miranda Ayim supported well with 11 and Kalisha had nine.
Ten countries are taking part in the tournament and the gold medallists will qualify for the London 2012 Olympics.
The teams that finish from second to fourth place will gain the right to play at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in June next year.
The top three teams in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament will join the nine teams that qualified automatically.