SAITAMA, Japan — Canada's women's basketball team has been pushed to the brink at the Tokyo Olympics.

And it's happened a lot sooner than they expected.

Astou Ndour had 20 points to go along with 11 rebounds as Spain cruised to a 76-66 victory Sunday in the round-robin finale for both countries.

Kia Nurse had 14 points for the Canadians (1-2), who now have to wait on other results to see if their time in Japan will continue.

"Heartbroken for our team," head coach Lisa Thomadis said. "Not the outcome we were looking for. We certainly wanted to take matters into our own hands. We won two of the four quarters, but unfortunately we dug ourselves into too much of a hole.

"Just disappointed."

Cristina Ouvina added 15 points and seven assists as Spain (3-0) clinched first in Group A.

"There's no way to explain it," Canadian guard Bridget Carleton said. "We're not happy about it.

"We believed in ourselves, and just weren't able to put it together."

Serbia (1-1) and South Korea (0-2) played in Sunday's late game to wrap up the group inside the cavernous Saitama Super Arena.

Ranked fourth in the world by FIBA, Canada needs a South Korean upset in that one to finish second in the group. If that doesn't happen, the Canadians will wind up third and have some nervy hours in advance of Monday's results in the rest of the women's bracket to see if they'll move onto the quarterfinals.

The top two teams in each of the tournament's three groups advance to the start of the medal round Wednesday, along with the two best third-place squads.

Spain entered the 10 a.m. local time start having already booked a spot in the quarters. Canada departed the athletes' village at 7:15 a.m. for the 40-kilometre bus ride to the venue north of Tokyo.

Canada lost its opener 72-68 to Serbia before rebounding to beat South Korea 74-53.

The Canadians trailed 23-13 after Sunday's first quarter thanks to some sloppy play early before grinding its way back into the contest in the second, with Kia Nurse's three-pointer just before half cutting the deficit to 40-34.

But the Spaniards went on a 9-0 run to go up by as many as 20 early in the third.

Nurse hit a three early in the fourth to cut the deficit to 60-52. The Canadians would get back to within six a couple of times, but couldn't close the gap any further.

Canada finished seventh at the 2016 Rio Games and has never medalled at the Olympics.

Currently sitting No. 3 in the world rankings, Spain won silver in Brazil five years ago.

"They're veterans, they're experienced, they know what it's like to play at this level," said Carleton, 24. "And we're learning — we're learning how to play with each other. But that's no excuse.

"We still should be able to put 40 minutes of good basketball together. It starts on the defensive end for us … that's the choice we have to make."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2021.

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