USA Americup Team headlined by Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles
Tina Charles and Sylvia Fowles headline USA AmeriCup team
Although the WNBA season has ended for all but four teams, there is more elite women’s basketball to be watched, played, and followed.
Some of the best young talent and gold medal veterans such as Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota Lynx) and Tina Charles (New York Liberty) will be playing together on the USA AmeriCup team.
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Twenty-one players participated in a three-day minicamp in Miami, but only 12 athletes were selected to compete in the FIBA AmeriCup, which will take place from Sept. 22-29 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Jordin Canada (Seattle Storm/ WNBA All-Defense first team), Naphessa Collier (Minnesota Lynx/ WNBA ROY), Diamond DeShields (Chicago Sky), Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings/WNBA All-Rookie team), Katie Lou Samuelson (Chicago Sky), Brittany Sykes (Atlanta Dream), and Khadijah Sessions (Kouvot Finland) are the guards that made the cut.
While Sylvia Fowles and Tina Charles will have the help of Stefanie Dolson (Chicago Sky), Elizabeth Williams (Atlanta Dream), and Olivia Nelson-Ododa (University of Connecticut) at the forward position.
Of the 12-member team, everyone but Sessions has experience playing for the red, white, and blue whether for the Olympic team or on a U18 USA National team like UConn’s Nelson-Ododa.
The AmeriCup team will be led by the University of South Carolina and USA National team head coach Dawn Staley.
“We’ve got a good, young group. We’ve got the spectrum. We’ve got the USA National Team first timers, we’ve got multi-time Olympians and then we’ve got some players who are very young, but who had great WNBA seasons,” said Staley in a press release. “So, I think it’s great for us to see where our USA National Team pool is overall. So, I’m happy and excited to take the next step and go to Puerto Rico with this group.”
Alongside Staley, Dan Hughes (Seattle Storm), Cheryl Reeve (Minnesota Lynx-WNBA Exec of the Year), and Jennifer Rizzotti (George Washington) will serve as assistant coaches for the 2019 AmeriCup team.
AmeriCup Tournament Set Up
The AmeriCup tournament is made up of ten nations, the top eight winning teams will advance to a “Nov. 10-18 FIBA Americas Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament.”
The ten nations will be split into two pools- Group A and B, that consist of five teams each.
Group A Pool: Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Puerto Rico
Group B Pool: USA, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay
The top two teams in each group will advance and face off in a Sept. 28 semifinals game.
The two teams that win in the semis will play in the gold and bronze medal games on Sept. 29.
All USA games will be streamed on ESPN+
USA Schedule- EDT Time
September 22: USA vs. Paraguay @ 3 p.m.
September 24: USA vs. Colombia @ 12:30 p.m.
September 25: USA vs. Argentina @ 5:30 p.m.
September 26: USA vs. Brazil @ 3 p.m.
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