Victoria Lucas-Perry Named Finalist For U.S. U20 National Team

Victoria Lucas-Perry Named Finalist For U.S. U20 National Team Courtesy of MSU SID. Lucas-Perry among 18 finalists selected after three days of trials in

Victoria Lucas-Perry Named Finalist For U.S. U20 National Team

Courtesy of MSU SID.

Lucas-Perry among 18 finalists selected after three days of trials in Colorado Springs.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- USA Basketball announced Michigan State women’s basketball senior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry has been named one of 18 finalists for the 2006 USA FIBA Americas U20 Championship team following three days of trials this past weekend that saw 38 athletes competing. The finalists were selected by the USA Basketball Women’s Collegiate Committee, which is chaired by Sue Donohoe, the NCAA’s vice president of Divison I women’s basketball. The 18 finalists will reconvene in late July for training camp to begin preparations to defend the United States’ title at the 2006 FIBA Americas U20 Championship. The final 12-member USA U20 National Team will be announced prior to departing for the tournament, scheduled to be held Aug. 9-13 in Mexico City, Mexico. Earlier this month, Spartan head coach Joanne P. McCallie was named head coach of the USA Women’s U20 National Team.

The 2006 FIBA Americas U20 Championship features eight teams from North, South and Central Americas and the Caribbean. The top three finishing teams qualify for the 2007 FIBA U21 Women’s World Championship that will be held July 27-Aug. 5 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

"We’ve got some terrific opportunities in the post, and we always want to use our post players effectively," McCallie said in a statement released by USA Basketball. "We’ve got some creative players, and I think we’ve got a team with good chemistry. I think that they are a nice group of women who aren’t afraid to understand what the bigger picture is. And so I feel the ‘we’ component more than the ‘me’ component. That’s always good."

The 18 finalists athletes include: Jolene Anderson (Wisconsin/Port Wing, Wis.); DeWanna Bonner (Auburn/Fairfield, Ala.); Essence Carson (Rutgers/Paterson, N.J.); Alexis Gray-Lawson (California/Oakland, Calif.); Devanei Hampton (California /Oakland, Calif.); Jillian Harmon (Stanford/Lake Oswego, Ore.); Erlana Larkins (North Carolina/Riveria Beach, Fla.); Camille LeNoir (Southern California/Los Angeles, Calif.); Victoria Lucas-Perry (Michigan State/Flint, Mich.); Renee Montgomery (Connecticut/St. Albans, W.Va.); Marscilla Packer (Ohio State/Pickerington, Ohio); Ashley Paris (Oklahoma/Piedmont, Calif.); Courtney Paris (Oklahoma/Piedmont, Calif.); Kia Vaughn (Rutgers/Bronx, N.Y.); Ashley Walker (California/Modesto, Calif.); Erica White (Louisiana State/Jacksonville, Fla.); Khadijah Whittington (North Carolina State/Roanoke, Va.) and Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton (Purdue/Naperville, Ill.).

Lucas-Perry, who will be a senior in 2006-07, is MSU’s top returning scorer as she netted 10.2 points per game last season. She was also sixth in the Big Ten in 3-point percentage at 38.7 percent. The Flint, Mich., native was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection in 2005-06. Last summer, Lucas-Perry played on the Big Ten Foreign Tour team that visited the Netherlands and Belgium.

Sixteen of the 18 athletes under consideration for a final roster spot have previous USA Basketball experience. Four players (Anderson, Carson, Larkins, Courtney Paris) led the U.S. to a gold medal at the 2005 FIBA U19 World Championship. In addition to the 2005 FIBA U19 World Championship gold medal, those same four players also helped the American women to the gold medal at the 2005 International Sports Invitational against top junior national teams from Australia, Russia and China.

The previous summer Carson, Larkins and Courtney Paris were members of the USA U18 National Team that earned the United States’ berth in the U19 Worlds after claiming the 2004 FIBA Americas U18 Championship. Additionally, Carson, Gray-Lawson, Hampton, Harmon, Lucas-Perry, Montgomery, Packer, Ashley Paris, Courtney Paris, Vaughn, White, Whittington and Wisdom-Hylton have all competed in a USA Basketball Youth Development Festival, while LeNoir attended the 2005 USA Junior National Team Trials.

McCallie will be assisted by collegiate head coaches University of California’s Joanne Boyle and Furman University’s (S.C.) Sam Dixon.

 

The eight participating teams in the 2006 FIBA Americas U20 Championship will be divided into two preliminary round groups of four teams each. After playing each of the other three teams in its preliminary round group between Aug. 9-11, the top two finishing teams from each preliminary round group will advance to play in the Aug. 10 medal round semifinals, while the third and fourth place finishing teams in preliminary round play will meet in the consolation round semifinals that day. The gold medal, bronze medal, fifth/sixth place and seventh/eighth place games will be played on Aug. 13.

 

Originally known as the FIBA Americas World Championship For Young Women Qualifying Tournament, the event was first held four years ago in 2002 as the U.S. earned the gold medal to qualify for the 2003 FIBA World Championship For Young Women. FIBA recently made the name change to reflect the age of eligible athletes (U20 for the qualifier and U21 for the World Championship). The USA not only captured the gold at the inaugural event in 2002, held in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, it swept all four games and outscored the competition a whopping 102.8 points per game to 52.5 ppg. Brazil finished with the silver and Argentina claimed the bronze as all three teams qualified for the 2003 U21 Worlds.