STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford incoming freshman Alanna Smith was selected as one of the 12 athletes to Australia’s Under-19 Gems squad, which will represent its country this summer at the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women, Basketball Australia announced late last week.
The competition, which runs from July 18-26 and takes place in the host city of Chekhov, Russia, will feature the best U19 teams from across the globe. The Australian Jayco Gems will face Group D opponents Serbia, Brazil and South Korea in the preliminary round of the tournament. The Gems qualified for this event following their title at the 2014 FIBA Oceania U18 Championship for Women in Suva, Fiji. The Australians finished third at the 2013 edition of the biennial event held in Lithuania.
Smith, who earned her spot on the team following a May training camp, will be one of two Cardinal playing across the globe in July. Two weeks ago, sophomore forward Erica McCall was one of 12 players named to the USA roster for the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea from July 3-14.
The Gems will leave on July 3 to play two games against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, as well as participate in a short training camp. They will then head to Spain for a pre-worlds tournament against Spain, Canada and the United States before arriving in Russia two days before their World Championship begins against South Korea, Brazil and Serbia.
Smith led all competitors in scoring at the aforementioned FIBA Oceania U18 Championship for Women, averaging 21.0 points on 65.2 percent shooting to go along with 7.2 rebounds. In the 98-65 title game victory over New Zealand on December 6, the 6-foot-3 forward scored 21 points on 10-of-19 shooting and nabbed four steals.
She represented her country at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women in Amsterdam, averaging 5.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Australia’s fifth-place tournament finish included a 15-point, seven-rebound, nine-block performance for Smith against Japan on August 22. Her FIBA career started at the 2011 FIBA Oceanic U16 Championship for Women in Canberra, Australia.
In February, Smith continued her strong play at the 2015 U20 Australian Junior Championships, propelling her Victoria team to an undefeated record and a dominant 75-41 win over Western Australia in the grand final. She posted averages of 19.8 points and 9.1 rebounds on 50 percent shooting en route to MVP honors and began the tournament with a 30-point, 10-rebound double-double against New South Wales on February 22.
In Russia, the sixteen teams will be divided into four groups (A, B, C, D) of four teams each. Each team will play against the other three teams in its group. All teams qualify for the Round of 16, where they will cross between groups A and B and C and D (A1 v B4, A2 v B3, etc.). The winners of the Round of 16 advance to the quarterfinals, while the losers play classification games for places 9-16. All teams compete until the last day of the championship.
Stanford, coming off its eighth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance, finished its 2014 season 26-10 overall and claimed the program’s 11th Pac-12 Tournament title in 14 years.