Brown-Turner, Cunane Named Finalists For AmeriCup Team
Elissa Cunane and Jakia Brown-Turner of the NC State women's basketball team have both been selected as finalists for the 2021 USA Basketball Women's AmeriCup Team.
They earned the selection after spending the last four days competing with and against 20 of the nation's top collegiate women's basketball players at the team trials in Columbia, S.C. NC State is the only ACC school represented on the lists of finalists.
Cunane and Brown-Turner are two of 13 finalists who will return for a training camp that will begin June 1. The official 12-player roster will then be named prior to the team's departure for the 2021 FIBA AmeriCup. Ten nations from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean will take part in the event, which is set for June 11-19 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The top four finishing teams at the AmeriCup will advance to compete in one of the four 2022 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournaments in hopes of earning one of the 12 spots in the 2022 FIBA World Cup field.
During their 2020-21 collegiate campaigns, Cunane (Second Team) and Brown-Turner (Honorable Mention) were both named All-Americans by the Associated Press and were Consensus First Team All-ACC selections.
A native of Summerfield, N.C., Cunane averaged a team-leading 16.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 53.3 percent shooting this past season. She scored in double figures in all but one game, including six 20+ point outings and seven double-doubles. She was named ACC Tournament MVP and garnered All-America honors from multiple outlets, including First Team status from ESPN. In the season opener, she surpassed 1,000 career points after already reaching 500 career rebounds near the end of the 2019-20 season. Through three years of her Wolfpack career, Cunane averages 15.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 54.4 percent (466-of-857) from the field.
Brown-Turner made the start in all 25 games for the Wolfpack in 2020-21 after starting the most outings by a freshman in the Wes Moore era in the season prior. She ended the year averaging 13.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Her 1.6 made three pointers per game led the team, as she compiled a 37.0 percent clip from downtown. Brown-Turner scored in double figures in 20 games, including the first 13 in a row, and notched the first 20+ point outing of her career on Dec. 17 on her way to posting four such games on the season. On her career, she averages 11.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting a combined 43.3 percent (244-of-564) from the field and 36.9 percent (83-of-225) from three-point range.
The full list of athletes, selected by the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team Committee and the USA Women's Senior National Team Committee, is below:
Grace Berger, G, Indiana
Aliyah Boston, F, South Carolina
Jakia Brown-Turner, W, NC State
Veronica Burton, G, Northwestern
Elissa Cunane, C, NC State
Destanni Henderson, G, South Carolina
Naz Hillmon, F, Michigan
Rhyne Howard, G, Kentucky
Haley Jones, G, Stanford
Diamond Miller, G, Maryland
Ashley Owusu, G, Maryland
Sedona Prince, F, Oregon
NaLyssa Smith, G, Baylor