The Bay Area Phoenix are Ready for the Americas Final Four
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A month after winning all of their games in the group stage, the Bay Area Phoenix headed back to Medellin, Colombia to try to win the championship. Their semifinal game will be on Friday against the runners up from the other group, Sportiva Italiana of Chile and the game can be watched live or as a replay from the video below. The last game will be on Saturday and the opponent and time will depend on the results of both games on Friday. The hosts will again be defending champions Antioquia, who the Phoenix narrowly defeated to close out the group stage, and they will face Union Florida of Argentina.
Roster Changes
Teams are allowed to make roster changes between stages, although sometimes those are not voluntary. The other teams did evaluate their rosters after qualifying for this round and tried to strengthen when possible. The Phoenix have lost three players from the group stage roster with Aquira DeCosta signing for Ostersund in Sweden, Aliyah Collier signing for Guangdong in China, and Emer Nichols also not returning.
To add depth in the paint, the Phoenix added one of the top players in the WPBA since its inception, Mariah Cooks from the Berkeley Royals. Besides playing well and having familiarity with the other players on the team, Cooks had a variety of international opportunities after her college career at Washington State before settling in the Bay Area to attend law school and become a practicing attorney.
The Phoenix also added additional scoring and experience by bringing in Doris Jones from the Bay City Blaze after she helped them win the championship with coach Bryan Gardere and Ameela Li, who also played in the group stage. A Bay Area native, she started college at nearby Diablo Valley after finishing high school at KIPP King Collegiate. She later played at Houston before finishing her college career at UC Santa Barbara and has overseas experience in addition to her time in the WPBA.
Game Video (2:30pm PDT):
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