STANFORD, Calif. – Incoming Stanford freshman forward Alanna Smith is set to begin competition at the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women, which begin Saturday in Chekhov, Russia.
Smith, who earned her spot on the team following a May training camp, is the second of two Cardinal playing internationally in July. On Monday, rising junior Erica McCall led the United States to gold at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, averaging 15.2 points on 59.7 percent shooting and 8.5 rebounds per game.
Australia begins its tournament at 3:15 p.m. local time (5:15 a.m. PT) on Saturday, July 18 against Serbia. It plays Brazil at 1:30 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. PT) on Sunday, July 19 and wraps up Group D play with South Korea on Tuesday, July 21 at 3:45 p.m. local time (5:45 a.m. PT).
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.
Australia’s Under-19 Gems squad qualified for this championship 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.
Australia went 1-2 at an exhibition tournament in Mercia, Spain over the past three days in which Smith started all three games and averaged 8.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19.3 minutes. She scored six points and had five boards in an 85-82 loss to the United States on July 12, went for 12 and eight the next day as Australia beat Spain 72-50 and closed with six points, four rebounds and three steals in a seven-point loss to Canada (67-60) yesterday.
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.
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.