DWBB: Summer of 2025

DU82 said:
Note that former Blue Devil Sofia Roma (Class of 2019, transferred from Wagner) is playing on the Puerto Rico team in the Americup. goDuke.com included her in the press release about the tournament a couple of days ago.
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I was mildly surprised to see that Toby wasn't playing for Canada, she had been an all-star on the U19 team before. Also, I was mildly surprised that one Miss Shayeann Day-Wilson IS on the Canadian roster. I had forgotten she was from up North.
 
brevity said:
One of the things I liked about playing in Tampa last season is that it was also preparation for the Final Four that was later held there. Going back this season doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The 2026 Final Four is in Phoenix, and now that Winston Gandy is the head coach at Grand Canyon, you'd think that Coach Lawson might plan something similar.
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Bluedvlfan1 said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1940128234777321630

Looks like instead of the 3 game round robin format that was initially reported, it’s just down to 2 games.
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It's a pity that Duke will only play one of Texas or UCLA, while playing South Carolina for the third time in the past 12 months. One advantage, though, is that the shortened stay in Las Vegas creates a nice opening in the schedule to squeeze in a side trip to Phoenix. Duke can play a game against Grand Canyon, not far from where the Final Four will take place. There's a full week between the second Players Era game in Las Vegas and the LSU game at home.

11/20 South Florida (road)
11/26 South Carolina (neutral -- Las Vegas)
11/27 Texas or UCLA (neutral -- Las Vegas)
[Phoenix?]
12/04 LSU (home)

It's not that different from what the Duke men did last year, playing a road game against Arizona in Tucson 4 days before a neutral game against Kansas in Las Vegas.
 
Bluedvlfan1 said:
Duke has made 2026 PG Autumn Fleary’s top 4

https://twitter.com/x/status/1941171221967806482
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The wacky board software crops the image weirdly, so that you just see LSU and Duke. Autumn Fleary's other two finalists are UNC and UCLA.

dudog84 said:
On to semis, Kara & Co. win 110-44.
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USA 110, Dominican Republic 44 (recap, box score, highlights, presser)

The United States opened the knockout rounds at the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup with a 110-44 quarterfinal victory over the Dominican Republic. The Americans dominated early with a 34 point halftime lead and kept the foot on the gas on the way to the 66-point win.

Flau’Jae Johnson led six double-digit scorers with 22 points, 16 of which came in the second half. She was followed by Hannah Hidalgo with 17 points and a team-high 9 assists and Raegan Beers led the team in rebounds with 10.

“That’s been the story for us through this tournament, we’ve had different players step up throughout each game,” USA head coach Kara Lawson said. “And we’re definitely going to utilize our depth and need that to continue if we want to keep advancing.”

The United States tied the USA record for the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup with 31 team steals, scoring 48 points off turnovers in a strong defensive effort.



Edited to add: Canada won its quarterfinal against Colombia, 73-49, so USA will play Canada in a semifinal game Saturday at 5:40pm ET. Again, no free livestreaming.
 
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brevity said:
USA will play Canada in a semifinal game Saturday at 5:40pm ET.
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USA 65, Canada 53 (recap, box score, highlights, presser)

The United States took down Canada with a strong fourth-quarter performance in the semifinals of the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup, advancing to the gold medal game on Sunday. The Americans used third-quarter runs to recover from a halftime deficit, then held Canada to just 5 points in the fourth quarter on the way to the 65-53 win.

Hannah Hidalgo was all over the court for the U.S., leading with 19 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. Four Americans tied for the most rebounds with 5. Kennedy Smith blocked 3 shots as the team combined for 10 in total, setting a single-game USA record at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup...

The USA generated 8 steals and 5 blocks in the fourth, smothering the Canadians’ offense to secure the semifinal victory.

“In that fourth quarter, we just went to a different level defensively,” USA head coach Kara Lawson said. “To only give up 5 [points], 2 in the last five minutes, the group that we had out there was so locked in.”

If you're wondering, former Duke player Shayeann Day-Wilson had a day to forget for Canada. She started and played 27 minutes, but scored only 2 points (0-10 FG, 0-3 3PT, 2-2 FT) and committed 5 turnovers. She did add 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.


There's a definite ACC flavor to the press conferences, with Kara Lawson and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo speaking for Team USA, and former Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner and Syracuse grad Kayla Alexander representing Canada.


Brazil has a pretty good 3rd quarter lead over Argentina in the other semifinal. Should they hold on, they will play USA in the gold medal game Sunday evening.
 
brevity said:
USA 65, Canada 53 (recap, box score, highlights, presser)

The United States took down Canada with a strong fourth-quarter performance in the semifinals of the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup, advancing to the gold medal game on Sunday. The Americans used third-quarter runs to recover from a halftime deficit, then held Canada to just 5 points in the fourth quarter on the way to the 65-53 win.

Hannah Hidalgo was all over the court for the U.S., leading with 19 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. Four Americans tied for the most rebounds with 5. Kennedy Smith blocked 3 shots as the team combined for 10 in total, setting a single-game USA record at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup...

The USA generated 8 steals and 5 blocks in the fourth, smothering the Canadians’ offense to secure the semifinal victory.

“In that fourth quarter, we just went to a different level defensively,” USA head coach Kara Lawson said. “To only give up 5 [points], 2 in the last five minutes, the group that we had out there was so locked in.”

If you're wondering, former Duke player Shayeann Day-Wilson had a day to forget for Canada. She started and played 27 minutes, but scored only 2 points (0-10 FG, 0-3 3PT, 2-2 FT) and committed 5 turnovers. She did add 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.


There's a definite ACC flavor to the press conferences, with Kara Lawson and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo speaking for Team USA, and former Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner and Syracuse grad Kayla Alexander representing Canada.


Brazil has a pretty good 3rd quarter lead over Argentina in the other semifinal. Should they hold on, they will play USA in the gold medal game Sunday evening.
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It’s going to be a tough one for the USA tomorrow. Especially if they play as they did today. They seemed very out of sync. A lot baskets left on the table. Hoping it was just nerves.
 
Bluedvlfan1 said:
It’s going to be a tough one for the USA tomorrow. Especially if they play as they did today. They seemed very out of sync. A lot baskets left on the table. Hoping it was just nerves.
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Sunday's game is going to be very tough. Brazil has missed two Olympics and two World Cups in a row and they do not want to leave it up to chance this time by going to another qualifying tournament. They usually cannot count on their WNBA players in these championships, but got both of them this time because they want to win that automatic spot in the World Cup. The United States should still have an advantage in guard play, but it could be a long night in the post as Brazil is also well rested with an easier semifinal win.
 
karalawsongold.jpg
(source)

USA 92, Brazil 84 (recap, box score, highlights, presser)

The United States won the gold medal at the 2025 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup in Santiago, Chile, defeating unbeaten Brazil 92-84. The Americans worked back from a 7-point third-quarter deficit and pulled in front during a dominant fourth quarter to secure the win.

This is the fifth gold medal victory for the U.S. at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup, and the win clinches a berth at the 2026 Women’s World Cup in Berlin.

Mikayla Blakes had her highest scoring game with 27 points as she earned MVP honors for the tournament. Hannah Hidalgo followed with 16 points and tied Hannah Stuelke and Joyce Edwards with 7 rebounds. Olivia Miles dished out 9 assists to lead the offense.

“What a performance by our team,” USA head coach Kara Lawson said. “We knew it was going to be just a tough, physical game. It was what we expected. Brazil is a wonderful team and their power they have in their front court gave us some challenges, and our team just continued to fight.”


I did not know that former LSU head coach Pokey Chatman leads Team Brazil. She's also an assistant coach with the WNBA's Seattle Storm.


Remember that Emilee Skinner and a younger version of Team USA play in the FIBA U19 Women's World Cup in Czechia starting next Saturday, July 12. They'll play South Korea at 2:15pm ET. FIBA has the free livestream.
 
brevity said:
Mikayla Blakes had her highest scoring game with 27 points as she earned MVP honors for the tournament.
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What happened to Blakes? I watched Vanderbilt play Oregon in Cameron in the first round of The Tournament, and while Blakes was a major force to be reckoned with on the offensive end, defensively she was an absolute matador. I grant that it was just one game, but she was pretty much just mailing it in on the defensive side in that game. In the extended highlights above, though, she was really mixing it up. I'm wondering if perhaps Kara made an impact there.
 
Phredd3 said:
What happened to Blakes? I watched Vanderbilt play Oregon in Cameron in the first round of The Tournament, and while Blakes was a major force to be reckoned with on the offensive end, defensively she was an absolute matador. I grant that it was just one game, but she was pretty much just mailing it in on the defensive side in that game. In the extended highlights above, though, she was really mixing it up. I'm wondering if perhaps Kara made an impact there.
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In the presser, Blakes was asked about what is something she learned that she’s going to take back with her and she makes a comment about how this was probably the best she’s ever played defensively.
 
Phredd3 said:
What happened to Blakes? I watched Vanderbilt play Oregon in Cameron in the first round of The Tournament, and while Blakes was a major force to be reckoned with on the offensive end, defensively she was an absolute matador. I grant that it was just one game, but she was pretty much just mailing it in on the defensive side in that game. In the extended highlights above, though, she was really mixing it up. I'm wondering if perhaps Kara made an impact there.
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Mikayla Blakes also has an older brother who knows a bit about the joys of playing defense.

 
brevity said:
Mikayla Blakes also has an older brother who knows a bit about the joys of playing defense.
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Exactly. That's why I was so surprised when I saw her play live. She wasn't anything like Jaylen, who could lock people down but had occasional trouble even with layups. Mikayla was the polar opposite: She could hit the basket with her eyes closed, but barely bothered to try to stop anyone else from scoring.
 
As if Mulkey coming to Cameron wasn’t going to be a show in itself. Lol LSU fans have been very outspoken, to put it nicely, on Kara’s decisions during americup to play Flau’jae limited minutes. And of course Flau’jae is feeding into the madness by posting in her “thank you to USA basketball” on Instagram that she can’t wait to see Kara on 12/4!! LOL We are still 5 months away and they already know how to whip up a storyline down there in the Bayou!
 
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