Women's Basketball signee Raven invited to USA Basketball Under-18 National Team trials
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- Thirty-four of the nation's top 18-and-under women's basketball players, including All-America 6-0 guard and University of Texas signee Brittainey Raven, will attend 2006 USA Basketball Under-18 National Team trials this upcoming weekend at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs. USA Basketball will conduct trials for the USA U18 National Women's Team from Friday-Monday, June 16-19 at the USOTC. The invitations were issued by the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee, which is chaired by Sue Donohoe, the NCAA's vice president of Division I women's basketball. Finalists for the USA U18 National Team will remain in Colorado Springs following the Trials, and the official 12-member squad will be announced prior to the start of the 2006 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Women. The USA is the defending FIBA Americas U18 Championship team. Those players eligible for the USA U18 squad were born on or after January 1, 1988. The 34 Trials hopefuls include one rising college sophomore and 33 high school athletes, 16 from the class of 2006, 16 who are members of the class of 2007 and one athlete from the class of 2008. The 2006 FIBA Americas U18 Championship For Women is being hosted by USA Basketball at the USOTC from June 28-July 2. The top four finishing teams will earn qualifying berths for the 2007 FIBA U19 World Championship, slated to be held July 7-22 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Teams in addition to the United States that will participate in the U18 tournament include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Paraguay and Puerto Rico. The event, which will be held at the USOTC Sports Center I, is free and open to the public. Raven (Fort Worth, Texas), a consensus high school All-American out of North Crowley High School, is one of 13 participants with prior USA Basketball experience, gained at the 2005 Youth Development Festival. Last summer, Raven was on the bronze-medalist USA Red Team and she tied a Festival record for steals with eight. As a senior at North Crowley, Raven led the squad to the Texas area finals while averaging 27.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. She is rated as the No. 3 prospect coming out of high school by the Allstar Girls Report recruiting service. Among her many honors as a senior, Raven earned the State of Texas' 2006 Gatorade Circle of Champions Player of the Year award; was a McDonald's All-American and WBCA/Nike All-American, playing in both the McDonald's and WBCA High School All-America Games; earned Parade Magazine and EA Sports First Team All-America honors; and gained Second Team All-America honors from USA Today and Street & Smith magazine. DePaul University (Ill.) head coach Doug Bruno has been named to lead the USA's 2006 FIBA Americas U18 Championship For Women Team, while Northern Illinois University head coach Carol Owens and University of Hartford head coach Jennifer Rizzotti will serve as assistant coaches. Originally known as the FIBA Americas Junior World Championship Qualifier, the tournament has been held every four years since 1988. FIBA recently changed its calendar, and the event will now be conducted every other year. USA women's teams boast of a remarkable 24-2 overall record at this event and have won gold in 1988, 2000 and 2004, while capturing silver medals in 1992 and 1996. For more information on USA Basketball and for the full roster of invitees to the 2006 USA U18 national team, go to USABasketball.com.
|
|
