The Canadian women's basketball team could not come back after being outscored 27-6 in the third quarter, and ended up dropping a 71-56 decision to Chinese Taipei in its opening game at the 23rd Summer Universiade, on Wednesday.

Hofstra University forward Lizanne Murphy of Beaconsfield, Que. scored a team-high of nine points while Kaela Chapdelaine of Abbotsford, B.C. (University of Oregon) and Anouk Boulanger of Sherbrooke, Que. (Bishop's University) contributed seven apiece.

For Chinese Taipei, which finished fourth at the 2003 University Games losing the bronze medal match to Russia, Liu Chun-Yu and Lan Jui-Yu each scored 18 points in only three quarters of play.

Down 21-7 after the first quarter, the Canadians quickly regrouped and found themselves within five points of their rivals, at 23-18, with five minutes to go in the first half, before heading to the locker room trailing 35-26.

Back from the break, Chinese Taipei scored at will, netting 15 of the first 16 points, all but putting the game out of reach.

"We were stagnant when we came out," said 5-foot-10 guard Chapdelaine. "We're a young team with only a few girls with international experience. We made a lot of mistakes this afternoon especially in our defensive transitions, something we'll have to work on."

Head Coach Stu Julius of Kitchener, Ont. (Wilfrid Laurier University) recognized the strength of the Chinese Taipei squad.

"They are a good team. We've got to take something from this experience and move on."

Canada shot 31% from the field, while Chinese Taipei was good on 42% of its attempts. Both teams had 27 turnovers.

The Canadians (0-1) will try and balance out their record on Aug. 12 at 3:30 a.m. EST (10:30 a.m. local) when they meet Lebanon.

About CIS and the Universiade

The Summer Universiade is a multi-sport event that takes place every two years, and is second in size only to the Olympic Games. The Universiade is open to competitors between the ages of 17 and 28 in the year of the Games, who are full-time post-secondary students (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution within the previous year of the event.

The 23rd Summer Universiade to be held Aug. 11-21, 2005 in Izmir, Turkey will feature some 9,000 participants including 8,000 student-athletes from 170 countries competing in the following sports: archery, athletics, basketball, diving, fencing, gymnastics, sailing, soccer, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling.

For all the info on the 2005 Summer Universiade:

-       Official site Izmir 2005: www.universiadeizmir.org/en
-       Team Canada site: www.cisport.ca/izmir2005

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Its 51 members, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 19 national championships in 11 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at the Winter and Summer Universiades, and 27 world university championships. For all the info on the CIS: www.universitysport.ca

-CIS-