RELEASE: Brown-Turner, Cunane Named To USA AmeriCup Team
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – NC State women's basketball's Jakia Brown-Turner and Elissa Cunane were both named to the official 12-player roster for the USA AmeriCup Team.
They earned the selection after spending the past week at one final training camp with the nation's best collegiate players. Cunane and Brown-Turner depart Monday with Team USA to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico 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. 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 Wolfpack duo and Team USA will open play on June 12 against Dominican Republic at 6:10 p.m. EDT (all games will be available on ESPN+). The USA will play Puerto Rico at 9:10 p.m. EDT on June 13, Venezuela at 6:10 p.m. EDT on June 14 and will wrap up the preliminary round against Argentina at 9:10 p.m. EDT on June 15.
The quarterfinals will be played on June 17, the semifinals on June 18 and the third-place and gold-medal games on June 19.
The USA has played in five previous FIBA AmeriCups, historically used as a qualifier for an Olympics or FIBA World Cup, including 1989, 1993, 1997, 2007 and 2019. The U.S. has captured three gold medals and one silver medal, while compiling a 24-7 all-time record. In the two most recent AmeriCups in which the USA has competed, the U.S. women were a perfect, 11-0 and won a pair of gold medals.
The full list of athletes for Team USA 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
Destani 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