Mitchell to Represent U.S. in FIBA 3x3 Championship
May 12, 2014
COLUMBIA – University of South Carolina sophomore Tiffany Mitchell (Charlotte, N.C./Providence Day) helped her team, Takeover, to a perfect 7-0 record en route to the 2014 USA Basketball 3×3 Women’s National Championship. The team, which includes Tennessee’s Cierra Burdick, Louisville’s Sara Hammond and Notre Dame’s Jewell Loyd, will represent the U.S. in the 2014 FIBA 3×3 World Championship that will be played June 5-8 in Moscow, Russia.
Takeover won its final contest 21-15 over 2013 champion FST-Long Island. The USA Basketball 3×3 National Championship also included a skills session on Friday that featured hot shot, which is a partner shooting competition, a 3-point shootout and a skills challenge. Mitchell won the women’s 3-point shootout, while her teammates Hammond and Burdick took the women’s hot shot competition and Loyd claimed the skills challenge.
“It was a great opportunity to pair with great players I have only played against so far,” Mitchell said after winning the title. “It was fun to be on the same team going after the same goal. That’s all we were doing out there – having fun the whole time. We are all really competitive, though, and that showed through the weekend.”
The 2014 FIBA 3×3 World Championship is expected to feature 24 men’s teams and 24 women’s teams, and will be just the second edition of the biennial event. In addition to the USA Basketball 3×3 squad, nations competing for the women’s 2014 3×3 World Championship gold medal include Andorra, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, host Russia, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda and Uruguay.
“I’m excited to go to Russia and play,” Mitchell said of the next step with her Takeover teammates. “Basketball has taken me everywhere I’ve gone, and now Russia. I’m just really excited about the opportunity to play for my country.”
At the inaugural 2012 FIBA 3×3 World Championship that was held in Athens, Greece, the USA women’s team of Skylar Diggins, Bria Hartley, Chiney Ogwumike and Ann Strother captured the gold medal with a perfect 9-0 record.
