(Submitted photo/Paige Crozon)

By Ben Tompkins

Women's Series Championships

Humboldt native vying for back-to-back world titles

Sep 16, 2023 | 4:17 PM

An international competition all the way across the world has a significant northeast tie to it, in the form of a women’s basketball player.

Humboldt native Paige Crozon has the opportunity to become a back-to-back world champion this weekend, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The sharpshooter has been tearing it up with Team Canada lately, as the core group of four has won four consecutive 2023 FIBA Women’s Series stops in the past two months, which have included three at home.

“I think that the last few tournaments, we’ve been able to find the offensive flow and chemistry that we say is the strength of our team, and incorporating all four athletes at every single tournament, has really helped us kind of gain momentum the last few weeks,” Crozon told northeastNOW.

“Now we’re in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, playing in the women’s series final hoping to finish the season as the number one team in the world.”

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The women’s series has run all summer long and brings the top seven ranked teams in the world (plus host Mongolia) after each team earned points for the number of stops they played in, as well as how high they finished when participating.

Team Canada doesn’t have the depth that a lot of other countries have, so they had to pick and choose when they wanted to compete, and execute when they were on the hardwood.

They did just that as they entered the weekend as the number one seed, while also holding the title of reigning world champions.

“I think experience is a huge benefit in 3×3 just being able to kind of find the flow of the game. I think we just want to continue to play together and stay composed because it can be an emotional and long tournament,” explained Crozon.

“We’ve definitely felt like there’s been a bit of a target on our back so far, however, we put more pressure on ourselves because we try to hold ourselves to a very high standard of excellence. Hopefully, we’ll bring our best game against their best game and we welcome that kind of competition.”

The Canadian National Team is 3-0 in the tournament so far, winning all their group stage games early Saturday morning.

With that, they earned a bye to the semi-finals early Sunday morning, as they await the winners of the quarter-final matchups.

“I think strategically it’s a huge advantage because we have one less game, and although they’re only 10 minutes, physically they’re they’re very draining. It also provides an opportunity to watch the previous teams in their quarterfinal and come up with a game plan based on the actions that they’re showing in the quarters.”

The group beat Mongolia, France and Germany, as their supporters back at home pulled an all-nighter to watch the contests which are 14 hours ahead in time difference.

Crozon mentioned that they’ve had that support all season long, whether they’re at home or on the road.

“We had amazing fans and support when we played in Canada and we know that we always have our friends and family caring for us. I know my family was up watching in the middle of the night last night, so we’re really proud to be able to represent our home and our communities. Hopefully, we will be able to bring home the championship trophy to share with them.”

You can watch Crozon and Team Canada during their finals run via live stream on the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series website.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8