Bosch, Crozon and Team Canada repeat as 3×3 Women’s Series champions

By Lethbridge Herald on September 19, 2023.

SUBmiTTED photo Team Canada players consisting of Kacie Bosch, Paige Crozon, Katherine and Michelle Plouffe celebrate after repeating as champions at the Women’s Series Final for 3x3 basketball over the weekend in Mongolia.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Current University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s team coaches Paige Crozon and Kacie Bosch are on top of the basketball world at this moment in time.

Both Bosch and Crozon were a part of the Team Canada FIBA 3×3 team along with the Plouffe twins, Katherine and Michelle, from Edmonton that repeated for a second consecutive year as Women’s Series Final champions after a 16-15 win over France in the final on Sunday in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

It was second consecutive year that Canada beat France in the Final.

Canada swept Pool A with a 22-17 win over Mongolia, a 22-17 win over France and a 21-13 win over Germany before a 21-12 win over the United States in one of the semi-final on Sunday.

Canada entered the final tournament as the No. 1 seed after winning five stops of the nine during the season.

The team had to hang on late in the final game without Michelle Plouffe who sustained an injury.

Bosch, who hails from Lethbridge and played for the Horns women’s team, said the entire final was just a roller coaster in itself.

“The French girls are so talented and you can tell that they’ve been putting in a lot of work because just their style of play is very different to our style of play,” said Bosch.

“So when we won that game, it obviously feels good, but one of our teammates went down. So, in the middle of the game there was the stoppage for the injury and trying to figure out what was going on,(and) if Michelle would be able to continue playing or not. And so, when we realized she wasn’t going to be able to continue the game, us three really had to rely on each other to pull through the last two-and-a-half minutes and then when we did, it was obviously like bittersweet because it was awesome to be able to win it for Michelle too. But then your teammate is injured at the end, so yeah, just a rollercoaster and a journey (in) that game in itself.”

Bosch said it’s always nerve-wracking even to just  be in the final.

“And then when you realize you’re going to have to go down to three people, that nervousness increases just a little bit more,” said Bosch.

“So in that moment, I think I should have been more nervous than I actually was. But with the added  kind of fuel to our fire of Michelle being hurt, we knew that we wanted to be able to do this for her and for our team because we deserved it after such a long season. So the nerves kind of went away in the last two-and-a-half minutes because you’ve just have to put your head down and work and there’s no time to be nervous or worried.”

“I don’t know if it’s totally sunk in yet,” said Crozon.

“But we had an unbelievable experience in the last game. It was a very physical game and it was tied with six seconds to go ,and then we were fortunate to make the game-winning shot as time ran out to win the Women’s Series Final and be crowned the Women’s Series champions.”

Crozon said since it was the eight best teams on the women’s series, every game was a fight.

The Plouffes and Crozon have been playing together since 2019 and Bosch joined the squad in 2021.

“I would say the chemistry with our group and the amount that we’ve been able to play with one another was a strength this past weekend,” said Crozon.

Crozon feels fortunate that Canada has the Plouffes, who are No. 1 and 2 ranked players in the  world and two-time Olympians.

“So having a skill set like that on our team has really contributed to our success and then we all really have bought into our roles on the team,” said Crozon.

With the win, Canada ended the season  with a  fifth place world ranking finish and will be off to an Olympic qualifier next spring in hopes of making the 2024 Paris Olympics next summer.

Canada will play in the AmeriCup in December before the Olympic qualifier.

 3×3 basketball is teams having three players with one sub, one backboard and a half court setting