BY: BEN LYPKA, BLACK PRESS
The Olympic ride is over for Mission's Kim Gaucher and the Canadian women's basketball team.
Canada fell 68-63 to France on Tuesday in the quarter-finals to end the team's run at Rio.
Team Canada had a 29-16 lead early into the second quarter, and ended the first half up 37-32.
France turned it on in the second half, and closed the game out with an 8-4 run to win the game and advance to the semi-finals.
Gaucher, the captain of the team, said foul trouble in the second quarter after Canada had built up a big lead cost them.
"We got into foul trouble, they were in the bonus with seven minutes left in the second quarter and I think that brought them back into the game," Gaucher said. "I think we could have been up big at that point, but they got so many shots at the free-throw line that we just gave away free baskets."
Gaucher led the way for Canada with 15 points and five rebounds.
Canadian head coach Lisa Thomaidis said the mistakes mounted for the team.
"We lacked a little bit of experience at the end," she said. "We forced up some tough shots we didn't need to, and we had a hard time learning our lessons throughout the tournament."
The loss ended a strong early run for the team, that saw them post wins over China, Serbia and Senegal to kick off the tournament.
Gaucher, a former Heritage Park Secondary student, is the lone Mission representative at the 2016 Summer Olympics.