USA Women Draw Group B for FIBA AmeriCup in Puerto Rico
• Schedule
The draw for the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup was held today in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the competition will take place from June 11-19. The USA will play in Group B, taking on Dominican Republic on June 12, Puerto Rico on June 13, Venezuela on June 14 and Argentina on June 15.
Playing in Group A are Brazil, Canada, Colombia El Salvador and Virgin Islands.
After a rest day on June 16, the quarterfinals will be played on June 17 and the semifinals on June 18. The third place and gold medal games are on June 19. Games times are to be determined.
The top four finishing teams at the AmeriCup will advance to compete in one of four FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments, which will take place in February 2022.
The USA will be led by Dawn Staley (South Carolina), with assistant coaches Adia Barnes (Arizona) and Jennifer Rizzotti (Connecticut Sun president).
Following four days of trials from April 19-21 in Columbia, South Carolina, 13 finalists were named for the team, including: Grace Berger (Indiana/Louisville, Ky.); Aliyah Boston (South Carolina/St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.); Jakia Brown-Turner (NC State/Oxen Hill, Md.); Veronica Burton (Northwestern/Newton, Mass.); Elissa Cunane (NC State/Summerfield, N.C.); Destanni Henderson (South Carolina/Fort Meyers, Fla.); Naz Hillmon (Michigan/Cleveland, Ohio); Rhyne Howard (Kentucky/Cleveland, Tenn.); Haley Jones (Stanford/Santa Cruz, Calif.); Diamond Miller (Maryland/Somerset, N.J.); Ashley Owusu (Maryland/Woodbridge, Va.); Sedona Prince (Oregon/Liberty Hill, Texas); and NaLyssa Smith (Baylor/Converse, Texas).
The 12-member USA roster will be determined prior to the team’s departure for Puerto Rico.
Featuring national teams from North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, the FIBA AmeriCup originally was known as the FIBA Americas Championship. The USA women have played in five previous FIBA AmeriCups, which historically was used as a qualifier for an Olympics or FIBA World Cup.
The U.S. has captured three gold medals (1993, 2007 and 2019) and one silver medal (1997), while compiling a 24-7 all-time record.
In the two most recent AmeriCups in which the USA has competed (2007, 2019), the U.S. women were a perfect, 11-0 and won a pair of gold medals.
