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Rio de Janeiro • Kim Smith Gaucher and Shona Thorburn have kept playing for 10 years after their University of Utah careers ended, being driven to deliver Canada's first Olympic medal in women's basketball.
Canada showed signs of dominating France early in Tuesday's quarterfinal game, only to have its offense stall in a 68-63 defeat that left the former Utes in tears as they struggled through interviews and walked to the locker room.
"Oh, it's heartbreaking," Canada coach Lisa Thomaidis said. "They deserved to have a better ending."
All four ex-Utes in the women's tournament were eliminated Tuesday. But the circumstances were different for American-born Leilani Mitchell, who joined Australia's team for the 2016 run, than for Gaucher and Thorburn, after all the effort they've put into Canadian basketball.
Unfortunately, it gets worse for them and ex-Ute Michelle Plouffe, who all play professionally in France. They'll have to live with this loss for a long time.
"It's going to be a rough year," Gaucher said, managing to smile.
Gaucher scored 11 of her 15 points in the first half, pumping her fist and screaming after hitting a 3-pointer that helped Canada take a 29-16 lead early in the second quarter. But the Canadians struggled to score the rest of the way. France got back into the game from the free-throw line, then caught up in the third quarter and moved in front in the fourth period.
"You work so hard for four years," Gaucher said, "and it slips away in a second."
It happened more slowly and agonizingly than that, as the team labored offensively. Thorburn has spoken about the old days of Canada's "having to fight like dogs just to score a bucket," and that was the case in losses to the USA and Spain in preliminary play and against France.
Kia Nurse, a University of Connecticut player, went 3 of 17 from the field. Having scored 25 points in a win over Serbia, she made 5 of 34 shots in Canada's three losses. Thomaidis lamented her team's missing "shots we normally make," as the Canadians produced 38 points in the last three quarters after scoring 25 in the first period.
Canada was within 60-59 in the last two minutes but Nurse missed a go-ahead attempt and France gradually secured the win, advancing to play the USA in Thursday's semifinals.
"I thought we had control of the game in the first half, and they didn't let that get to them," Thorburn said.
After all they've done to elevate Canada women's basketball, Gaucher and Thorburn approached Rio as their last shot at a medal. They're proud of how far the national program has come, but that didn't make this loss any easier to absorb.
"We worked our asses off for four years, so it's hard," Thorburn said. "But I think we've taught the younger generation … how hard you have to work."
Twitter: @tribkurt —
Storylines
• Canada falls 68-63 to France as the team's three former University of Utah players are eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second straight Olympics.
• The Canadians shoot 35.8 percent from the field, even though they make their first five shots.
• Ex-Ute Kim Smith Gaucher scores a team-high 15 points, but Shona Thorburn is scoreless in 11 minutes and Michelle Plouffe does not play.