Music: {allcanada} Canada fields veteran FIBA women's team

Friday, September 16, 2011

{allcanada} Canada fields veteran FIBA women's team

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- Veterans Teresa Gabriele, Chelsey Aubry and Kim Smith headline Canada's women's basketball roster for the FIBA Americas Championship.

Canadian coach Allison McNeill named her 12-player roster Friday for the tournament in Neiva, Colombia, Canada's first chance to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

Gabriele and Smith, both from Mission, B.C., and Aubry, from Kitchener, Ont., played for Canada at the world championships last summer.

Shona Thorburn of Hamilton returns to the national team for the first time since 2003, while Kalisha Keane of Ajax, Ont., last played for Canada at the 2009 World University Games.

Krista Phillips of Saskatoon, Courtnay Pilypaitis of Ottawa, sisters Alisha and Tamara Tatham of Brampton, Ont., and Lizanne Murphy of Beaconsfield, Ont., also played on Canada's world championship team. Rounding out the roster are Miranda Ayim of London, Ont., and Ottawa's Kadie Riverin.

Canada is in Group B of the Sept. 24-Oct. 1 tournament, and opens on Sept. 24 versus Mexico. The Canadians then play Brazil, Paraguay and Jamaica to complete the preliminary round. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals.

The tournament winner earns an automatic berth in London, while teams that finish second through fourth will play in a second-chance qualifying tournament next summer. The top five of those 12 teams will also play in the Olympics.

The Canadians wrapped up a training camp at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus on Friday and were scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico on Saturday for a pair of exhibition games against the host team on Monday and Tuesday.