The Women’s Premier Basketball Association is sending a representative to the club championship of the Americas for the second time, trying to exceed the silver medal from their campaign two years ago. The league was not quite able to end their season as planned this summer, but the focus shifted to fielding a team under the Bay Area Phoenix banner for this tournament that they had already entered. All six teams are guaranteed at least three games in the tournament in Santiago, Chile, starting with two group stage games that will determine the bracket for the knockout round.
Game Times and Videos
The tournament started on Tuesday with the other two teams in Group B playing each other. Sportiva Italiana, one of two teams from Chile, ended up defeating Araraquara of Brazil 66-44. The Phoenix will play Araraquara on Wednesday and Sportiva Italiana on Thursday with both tipoffs at 1pm PT. Games are being broadcast in Spanish on FIBA’s YouTube channel with links to both streams below. The team that wins the group will get a bye to Saturday’s semifinals and the other two teams will start in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Wednesday 1pm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIe0yXwMNxs
Thursday 1pm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehzi6B7psQI
Returning Experience
The team will only have one player who competed in this tournament last time as Faatimah A returns to the court. As the league founder, she has often also participated as a player there, but did not do so this past season, still bringing extensive international experience to the group. Bryan Gardere returns as the coach having won championships in the league while spending the rest of the year as a successful high school coach.
Players From the League
Most of the roster participated in this last WPBA season on a number of different teams. Alaiyah San Juan gives the team another Bay Area native with international experience in Portugal’s second division. Her Reign teammate Kharyssa Richardson is still in her rookie season professionally and will be important in the post for the team. Aniya McDonald-Perry is the other rookie having played for the Riptide this season. Miyu Mizukawa gives the team a point guard with two years of experience in the league having also played last season in Kosovo. Her Royals teammate Rosemarie Julien brings significant professional experience, including a WNBA opportunity. Connie Clarke gives the team another major scoring threat and recent experience in South America having joined the Wolves after being one of the top players in Brazil’s league.
Players From Outside the League
The squad was not limited to players who had participated in the WPBA season so two players who have not played there are filling out the roster of nine players. DeAngelique Waithe has experience from overseas leagues after her college career at LIU and represented Guyana at the national team level. Isabel Gonzalez is a Chilean center who brings experience from the local level to the team. She played two seasons in college, finishing at Morehead State, and also played in Africa’s club championship two seasons ago.
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