TORONTO — Kim Gaucher is the member of the Canadian women’s national team with the most service – “But I’m not the oldest, let’s make that clear,” she says.

But she’s put in her time.

She first donned the country’s colours at age 17 in 2001. But the 31-year-old from Mission, B.C., doesn’t have a lot of hardware to show for her long career spent building a program up from the foundation.

No one on her team does. As a group they are in the midst of restoring the national team to peaks not seen for almost 30 years, when Canada won bronze at the World Championships in 1979 and 1987.

It’s taken a while and they have done great things – an eighth place finish at the Olympics in 2012; fifth place at the Worlds a year ago. The women’s program is already where the men’s program can only dream of being for now.

But a medal is a medal. Everyone understands medals.

Now Gaucher and the rest of her team will have one of their own thanks to their dominating 91-63 win over Brazil at Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre on Sunday night. They are assured a place in the final Monday night against the U.S., of all countries.

The only question is what colour they’ll be taking home.

“I’d like it to be gold, but no one on this team has ever won a Pan Am medal before,” said Gaucher, whose 10 points made her one of four Canadians who scored in double figures, while nine scored at least five points. “[Winning silver] is huge and it’s so exciting to be able to play at home and have the crowd support behind us and showcase what Canadian women’s basketball is all about. I think fans are getting a chance to see the future is bright and so is the present right now.”

Gaucher was still in high school when Canada won a silver medal at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg in 1999, Canada’s best-ever result in the competition. The baby of the national team bunch, Kia Nurse, 20, was just five years old.

“I heard a lot of stories from the vets about how it felt [to win a medal at home] and what it was like to play in front of a great crowd,” said Gaucher. “I never thought that would come true for me, so I’m pretty pumped that it is.”

No Canadian basketball team – men’s or women’s – has won a major international tournament. There have been some age-group medals and to this point Canada’s high point is arguably a gold won by the men in 1983 at the FISU Games in Edmonton.

Playing at home has been an indescribable thrill for a group of women who have done almost all of their competing in far off places.

“I have been dreaming of winning a gold medal for Canada since I stepped onto the team in 2007 and we’re one step away,” said Lizanne Murphy, of Beaconsfield, Que., who had 12 points while knocking in two triples on four attempts. “We just have to do it [Monday]. We’ve been waiting for this moment, we’ve been waiting to be in this position and we’re ready.”

“I know it’s not the Olympics, but we’re in Canada, we’ve got all of Canada watching and we have all our friends and family here so it feels just as important as an Olympics.”

Normally beating the U.S. would be an almost impossible task given that the No. 1-ranked Americans have dominated international competition almost without interruption for the past 20 years, earning five Olympic titles and four world championships in that stretch.

But they use the Pan Ams as a development opportunity for their younger players and have sent a student all-star team that has shown their youth at times. They were trailing heading into the third quarter against Puerto Rico in their final game of pool play and came from behind to squeak past Cuba in the final seconds of the other semifinal. When the U.S. played Brazil in the tournament opener they won by seven.

On paper Canada will be the favourites.

Still, this is the U.S. and this is basketball. The talent is there. The Americans are led by Breanna Stewart a lithe 6-foot-4 do-it-all forward who is the two-time U.S. college player of the year and a three-time national champion at the University of Connecticut, where she is a teammate of Canada’s Nurse, as is U.S. guard Moriah Jefferson, another all-American.

Stewart is the lone member of the U.S. team to have played on their top team and she’s projected as the next big star in the women’s game and has shown it while averaging 19 points and 9 rebounds on 50 per cent shooting through four games.

“I haven’t seen anyone stop her in college basketball,” said Nurse. “We’ll have to see.”

Canada will head into the final on a high, running up a perfect 4-0 record in front of supportive crowds over the course of the tournament.

With a spot in the final on the line they couldn’t have scripted a better beginning against Brazil as Canada completely dominated the first quarter. London’s Miranda Ayim got them started by scoring Canada’s first seven points and Gaucher finished the quarter off in style by converting a backdoor layup and then a buzzer-beating triple to give Canada a 22-9 lead after 10 minutes.

They took a 35-21 lead into the half thanks to their defence as they held Brazil to just 24 per cent shooting through the first 20 minutes while continuing to dominate the boards with a 22-14 advantage, including an 8-3 edge on the offensive glass.

“Defence is our identity,” said Murphy. “Other teams might be bigger than us, they might be quicker than us but they don’t have our defence, they don’t have our heart.”

By the time the fourth quarter rolled around it was a blowout, and a celebration. The last minutes of the game were a prolonged standing ovation. Canada finished with their scoring and minutes almost perfectly distributed – no one played less than 10 minutes, no one played more than 23, and every player scored – a total team effort in pursuit of their own place in Canadian basketball history.

After years of competing internationally without a medal to show for it they are assured a record-tying silver medal at the Pan Am Games. And now at home they have the chance to go for gold and forever stand alone.