Salpointe Catholic forward Taliyah Henderson started for the second straight game Tuesday night as Team Canada improved to 2-0 in Group A of the FIBA U18 Women’s AmeriCup with an 86-38 rout of host Colombia.
Henderson, a 6-foot-1 Class of 2025 talent who is rated as one of the top prospects in the nation in her class, nearly had a double-double in the victory at the Coliseo Bicentenario in Bucaramanga, Colombia.
Henderson finished with eight points and 10 rebounds with two assists in 19 minutes. She made all six of her free-throw attempts and is 8 for 8 from the line in the two games (Canada opened with an 84-55 win over Argentina on Monday).
Canada and Team USA are the only unbeaten teams through the first two days.
The USA, playing in Group B, defeated Puerto Rico 102-22 on Tuesday after routing Brazil 97-51 on Monday.
The USA outscored Puerto Rico 44-2 in the second half.
The 80-point margin marked the USA’s largest margin of victory in international competition since 2008.
Canada finishes group play Wednesday with a game against the Dominican Republic at 3:40 p.m., Tucson time. All the games from the event are streamed live on FIBA’s YouTube channel.
The Dominican Republic is 0-2 with losses against the countries Canada has routed to this point — an 84-64 loss to Colombia and 81-35 defeat to Argentina.
The lopsided outcomes have limited Henderson’s time on the court to this point with a total of 39 minutes in the first two games.
Canada had 11 players with at least 10 minutes played in the win over Argentina on Monday and 10 in the same amount of time against Colombia.
It appears that Canada and USA are on course to meet in the championship game Sunday at 6:10 p.m.
The US plays Mexico at 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday in its final group game. Mexico is 0-2 with defeats to Puerto Rico and Brazil.
Bracket play begins Friday with the quarterfinals and will continue with the semifinals on Saturday before Sunday’s championship game.
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