STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford alumna Karlie Samuelson and Great Britain finished fourth at the recently concluded 2019 FIBA Women's EuroBasket in Latvia and Serbia and in the process secured one of six European spots in next year's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.
Samuelson '17 helped Great Britain to its highest EuroBasket finish by averaging 11.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists in seven games over 11 days. She was second on the team in scoring, third in rebounding and third in assists and had her best performance against Montenegro on July 1, scoring 28 on 8-of-11 shooting.
Great Britain finished second in Group A, beating Latvia (74-60) and Ukraine (68-54) and falling to Spain, the eventual champion, 67-59. It knocked off Montenegro, 92-71, to qualify for the quarterfinals and continued its tournament run by holding off Hungary, 62-59, to advance to the semifinals along with Spain, France and Serbia. Team GB lost its semifinal to France on Saturday, 63-56, and dropped the third-place game to Serbia yesterday, 81-55.
By virtue of its top-six finish, Great Britain will participate in next summer's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in June with an opportunity to earn its second Olympic appearance. As the host country, it was part of the field in London in 2012.
Samuelson is one of a number of Cardinal suiting up for national teams this summer. Freshman Fran Belibi is currently in Colorado Springs, Colo. with Team USA readying herself for the FIBA U19 World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand at the end of the month. Both Kiana Williams (United States) and Alyssa Jerome (Canada) will play for their countries at the Pan American Games from Aug. 6-10 in Lima, Peru.