TORONTO — Kia Nurse is still the baby. She’s been with the Canadian women’s national basketball team for three years and she’s only 19 years old. She dances at every opportunity. The vets make her go on coffee runs. She refuses to nap on game days.

And when she sings O Canada with a gold medal around her neck, she likes to sound out imaginary drums at the end of the first verse.

“God keep our land” – Kia: tum, tum, tah

“Glorious and free” – Kia: tum, tum, tah

It’s kid stuff, from the kid from Hamilton who has typically been overshadowed by her brother, Edmonton Oilers draftee Darnell Nurse.

What else do we know about Nurse?

She plays balls out when her team needs her most, and all eyes are watching. She did it Monday night, and she earned her country a gold medal.

This is what we know about Kia Nurse:

“Kia has a heart of a champion,” said head coach Lisa Thomaidis. “The biggest games she rises to the occasion. She was unbelievable, just unbelievable.”

She was and it was. Nurse had 33 points on Monday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in a dominant performance as the Canadian women’s basketball team did something no other Canadian basketball team has ever done.

They won a gold medal. It was the first gold by Canada in basketball in Pan Ams history – silver in 1999 was our previous best – and the first gold by a senior men’s or women’s team in any major international competition.

The Canadian women have been the best story in Canadian basketball for a while now, even if the potential on the men’s side gets most of the attention. In the past three years the women have finished eighth at the Olympics, second at FIBA Americas and fifth at the World Championships. They’re peaking now with a chance to qualify for the Olympics in Rio later this summer in Edmonton.

The women are where the men can only hope to be. Nurse is a big reason why and the way she played Monday night suggests there is farther to go.

“It was definitely something I didn’t imagine,” said Nurse of her breakout. “I felt a little down in the warm-up today, a little energy-less. Then I guess I chugged a Powerade, that must have helped. It was an incredible game.”

Their thrilling, nail-biting, exhilarating 81-73 win over the U.S. in front of a packed house was a team victory. They out-rebounded the bigger U.S. team, led by NCAA stars Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson, 39-35 and 13-9 on the offensive glass. A smart switch to a zone defence helped solve the U.S. pick-and-roll game that was giving Canada fits early on.

But it was Nurse who became a star, posting one of the greatest single-game basketball performances ever by a national team athlete.

Canada needed something, they were in uncharted territory. When they got off the bus outside the arena there was a crowd waiting for them. The game itself was sold out, bringing out the surest sign of sporting relevance: scalpers.

Inside, the Canadian women’s basketball team was greeted by whistles and cheers when they were walking to their dressing room – 90 minutes before the tip.

And the crowd was live.

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” said Thomaidis. “We’ve been in other gyms where countries are cheering like this for the team we are playing against. To finally get the opportunity to be the home team and to come out with a win in a real important event was just phenomenal.”

At the beginning it almost seemed like too much. Too much emotion. Too many thoughts about how rare a chance like Monday night was – to play in front of fans, friends and family and for gold. Even if it was a team of college all-stars instead of America’s very best, U.S. college all-stars are special players.

Canada might even have been the slight favourite, but then there were nerves. There were turnovers. Too many hasty jumpers. Weak fouls late in otherwise solid defensive possessions. The poise Canada had played with through four games seemed to have evaporated as the home team trailed 23-12.

But then Nurse happened. Maybe it was because she was playing against Stewart and Jefferson, her teammates on the University of Connecticut’s latest national championship squad. Nurse wasn’t just playing for her country on Monday, it was bragging rights.

Regardless, Nurse showed her intention early by opening the scoring with a fist-pumping three to start the scoring, but her second quarter was a thing of beauty. Canada was trailing 26-18 when she came back in the game with 7:56 left in the half and Nurse had five points. By the time she drilled her second three pointer of the half to give her 12 points for the quarter, Canada was up 36-34.

The crowd was a huge factor too, relishing the chance to impact a Canadian basketball team for once.

When U.S. star Stewart got the benefit of a questionable call in the second quarter the crowd was loud in their disapproval and Stewart missed both. A moment later when Nurse broke free for a fastbreak layup and a foul, they raised the volume again. Then the chants of “defence” rose up and Natalie Achonwa drew a charge and the U.S., sensing a momentum shift, called a time out to blunt Canada’s run.

With the teams tied 36-36 to start the third, Nurse’s teammates got into the act. Veterans Kim Gaucher and Lizanne Murphy dropped threes; Achonwa, finding her form after a year away from the game with a knee injury, was outstanding, setting screens, rolling to the basket. She scored all 13 of her points in the second half. And another youngster, 21-year-old Nirra Fields, was feeling it too, finding Nurse on a fastbreak with a full-court bounce pass that brought the crowd to their feet again.

The result was a 62-51 lead heading into the pivotal fourth quarter. Still time for plenty of nervous moments.

But then there was Nurse.

“I was just hoping to get the momentum switched,” she said when asked about her willingness to take over games. “I know the U.S. had a momentum going on for a little while there. Just a matter of staying with what I do well and my teammates helped me do that.”

Her twisting layup broke a nearly four minute scoring drought that started the final quarter as the U.S. crept closer. Her find of Achonwa for a seemingly clinching jumper with just under two minutes left was another stroke of brilliance, not the least of which because it came after she checked back in following getting her head rocked in a heavy collision with Jefferson.

It wasn’t destined to be simple – a pair of late turnovers helped the U.S. cut it to five. An Achonwa free throw pushed it back to six and then Nurse – who else – ended it on the line, knocking down a pair of free throws with “MVP” chants ringing out.

The wisdom of crowds, eh?

Canada wins gold; a nation finds a star.