2014 FIBA World Championships: Canada vs Australia Game Preview

With plenty of confidence and momentum in their favor, Team Canada will look to make even more history when they face Australia in the first quarterfinal game of the 2014 FIBA World Championships for Women.

Canada is looking to advance to their first-ever semifinals at a Worlds tournament while Australia hopes to continue their dominance.

The two teams had very different paths coming into this game. Australia cruised to a 3-0 record with wins over Belarus, Korea and Cuba. They averaged 88 points per game per contest and gave up 52 points per game. Canada finished 1-2 in pool play and had to win an elimination game to reach the quarterfinals.

This game will be an interesting as it will test Team Canada's ability to defend. This is the best team they will see in the tournament (outside of the USA of course) so they will need to be ready. They need to contain Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips. They also need to figure out how to make the rest of Team Australia's players non-factors in the game. It will also be interesting to see how Team Canada will play offensively and how they will attack Australia.

Although stats and history favors Australia, Canada shouldn't be discouraged: it will be a much closer and tightly contested contest than what most people would think. Whoever wins this game will likely go on to face Team USA in the semifinals. The loser will go on to classification matches to finish either 5th through 8th. Team Canada can still finish in the top 6, which would be a step up from their previous finish in international play at the 2012 London Olympics (8th place).

The game will be televised on Friday morning at 7:00 am EST on NBATV Canada, ESPN3 and online through FIBA's website. It will also be on tape delay later on at Sportsnet 1 in Canada.

For more on how the Canadians got to the quarterfinals, check out our Team Canada storystream.