July 21, 2009

USA U19 trying for third gold

The USA U19 women's basketball team is in Bangkok trying for their third straight gold medal at the FIBA U19 World Championship.

Nneka and Skylar Diggins, both of whom were on the U18 team last summer, were voted by their teammates to serve as co-captains of the 2009 USA U19 Worlds squad.

“I feel a lot of respect to be named co-captain with Skylar,” said Nneka. “I’m not surprised Skylar was named captain, I voted for her myself. I’ve been trying my best to talk to everyone, get everyone involved and not have any people lagging. I’m going to keep on doing that and hopefully that’ll intensify our game.”

The competition begins this Thursday, July 23 with the USA playing Spain in the preliminary rounds and ends with the gold medal game on Sunday, August 2. Here is the complete schedule.

The USA team warmed up yesterday with a friendly game against France, which they won 86-64. The USA dominated in the paint, out-rebounding France 61-27. Nneka was one of three USA players who had nine rebounds. She also scored six points and had one block.

Here is the game report from USA Basketball, with a link to the box score.

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