STANFORD, Calif. – Incoming freshmen Maya Dodson and Kiana Williams were two of 24 players selected to participate in the 2017 Jordan Brand Classic on April 14 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn it was announced Thursday.
The duo, who signed with Stanford in November, were also picked to play in the McDonald's All American Game on March 29 in Chicago. They will be the fourth and fifth future Cardinal to represent Stanford at the Jordan Brand Classic, now in its third year on the women's side. Current freshmen DiJonai Carrington, Nadia Fingall and Anna Wilson were on rosters for the event last April.
Dodson (Alpharetta, Ga./St. Francis) and Williams (San Antonio, Texas/Karen Wagner) make up half of the Cardinal's celebrated 2017 recruiting class which, along with Alyssa Jerome (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Harbord Collegiate) and Estella Moschkau (Mount Horeb, Wisc./Edgewood), is ranked fifth by espnW HoopGurlz.
Dodson, a 6-foot-3 wing, is a five-star talent and the No. 11 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100. A back-to-back state title winner at St. Francis High School in Alpharetta, Ga., Dodson averaged 13 points, seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks per game as a junior and was named Georgia's Class A player of the year. In 28 games this season she's averaging 14 points and seven rebounds for the 24-4 Knights.
This past summer, she won a bronze medal with Team USA at the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women in Zaragoza, Spain, making the 12-person roster out of a pool of 139 trial invitees. Dodson started all seven games and averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds, including scoring 12 and adding seven boards in the team's 65-50 win over China to secure third place.
Kiana Williams, a 5-foot-7, five-star point guard from San Antonio, Texas, is the No. 8 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100 and Stanford's first top-10 recruit since Chiney Ogwumike signed as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009.
Williams averaged 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and 2.5 steals per game as a junior for Karen Wagner High School last season. She was a first-team all-state selection for the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches as well as the Texas Girls Coaches Association. Williams averaged 22 points and four assists in leading the Thunderbirds to a 25-5 overall record this year.