Taurasi, Bird, Fowles and Diggins-Smith to lead USA at the Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament
USA announced a star-studded team for the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament, which will take place November 14-17, in the cities of Edmonton, Canada and Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
HOUSTON (United States) – USA announced a star-studded team for the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament, which will take place November 14-17, in the cities of Edmonton, Canada and Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
International superstars Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota Lynx) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (Dallas Wings), among others, will integrate the American squad that this time will be under the technical direction of coach Cheryl Reeve (Minnesota Lynx).
USA’s 12-player squad
|
Seimone Augustus |
Sue Bird |
Napheesa Collier |
Diamond DeShields |
|
Skylar Diggins-Smith |
Sylvia Fowles |
Chelsea Gray |
Arike Ogunbowale |
|
Nnemkadi Ogwumike |
Kelsey Plum |
Diana Taurasi |
A'ja Wilson |
USA will feature in Group B, which will be played in Bahia Blanca, Argentina. The North Americans will face Brazil on November 14, Argentina on the 16th and Colombia on the 17th.
The North Americans have been training for the tournament for several weeks. The previous week they held four preparation matches against top-level universities of the NCAA and left a balance of three wins and one defeat. They added straight wins against Stanford (95-80), Oregon State (81-58), Texas A&M (93-63) and ended with a surprising setback against Oregon (93-86).
USA was recently crowned champion of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019 in San Juan and is favorite to keep one of the two tickets granted by Group B to the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2020.
FIBA