CANADIAN women's basketball team continues run at World University Games

<br>BEIJING (CP) _ The Canadian women's basketball team continued its unbeaten run at the World University Games with a 76-61 win over the Netherlands on Monday. <br><br>It was a strong day for Canada

Monday, August 27th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (CP) _ The Canadian women's basketball team continued its unbeaten run at the World University Games with a 76-61 win over the Netherlands on Monday.

It was a strong day for Canada in team play as the women's soccer blanked South Africa 6-0 and the men's water polo team upset Italy 6-5.

The men's basketball team, however, fell 79-73 to China.

The women's basketball team, which upset the U.S. last week, improved to 4-0.

Leighann Doan of Halkirk, Alta., paced Canada with 22 pounds and led in rebounds with eight. Winnipeg's Erin Soroko had 17 points, including three three-pointers.

Canada led from start to finish with a 38-32 edge at the half and a cushion as high as 22 points late in the game.

``Our defence was really strong and put a lot of pressure on them right away,'' said Soroko. ``I thought that they were really intimidated by us at first and that just carried over.''

``(This winning streak) says a lot about our team because we didn't get down and we learned from each win.

``We haven't peaked yet and I think we're waiting for the gold medal game for that.''

Canada advanced to the final eight after finishing first in its pool and will face the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

The Canadian women came into the Games with five losses in exhibition play.

``It feels pretty awesome to change that completely around,'' said Doan.

The women's soccer team improved to 2-1 in the consolation round with their victory over South Africa.

Ottawa's Eva Melamed of Ottawa and Montreal's Danielle Day of Montreal each scored three goals for Canada.

``It was nice to capitalize on our scoring opportunities today,'' said Day. ``We want to continue to win and go home with three victories.''

Canada meets Finland in its final match Wednesday.

According to head coach John Csikos of Calgary, the water polo team's win over Italy was Canada's first at any international level.

``We've got some really young players and to beat Italy, a huge favourite in this tournament, does well for our program,'' explained Csikos.

Dusan Lazarevic of Toronto led Canada in scoring with two goals. Mark Block of Burnaby, B.C., Montreal's Yannick Lize, Noah Miller of Regina and Adam Sidky of Toronto scored the remaining goals.

Canada led 6-1 going into the final period but a tenacious Italian squad battled back to draw within one. Canada regrouped in the final minutes of the game and put up a solid defensive wall against constant pressure from Italy.

Canada (1-3) meets Russia on Tuesday in its final round-robin game of the tournament.