Clark playing well for USA Basketball
Caitlin Clark presents a familiar face to Hawk fans on the USA Women’s U-19 World Cup Team, as she begins her third stint with Team USA. She previously played with Team USA at the 2017 U-16 FIBA Americas and the 2019 U-19 FIBA World Cup. The squad played an international exhibition vs Spain, just across the Atlantic in Guadalajara, Spain Friday night.
The game was played as a tune-up for both teams before they compete in the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. The World Cup features teams from 16 countries and will be played from August 7-15. Team USA will face Italy, Australia and Egypt in the preliminary games on August 7th, 8th and 10th.
USA cruised to an easy 74-53 win in the exhibition game vs Spain, with Caitlin Clark accounting for 12 points and three steals. She was second on the team in scoring, but lead the way in the first half with eight points, as the team jumped out to a 40-31 halftime lead. The team put together a 10-0 run late in the third quarter to extend their lead to 56-36 and they never looked back from there. They will face Spain in two more tune-up games before they open play at the World Cup.
As for Caitlin Clark, she spoke with the media this summer saying she wanted to become more of leader in her second season at Iowa. “Improving leadership. I’ve been here for a year, so I know the offense, I know the system and just being more vocal on the court.”
She has went from one of the youngest in 2019, to one of the oldest players on the 2021 U-19 Team USA squad and, much like at Iowa, she is looking to be the leader of the group.
Clark spoke for an article on the Team USA website saying, “This is my first time doing something with USA Basketball where I've been one of the oldest, so it'll definitely be different, but I think leadership is always something you need on these USA Basketball teams, so I'm kind of bringing that.”
“I've had Coach Close as a coach before. So just kind of trying to be a leader, having been there before and coming in with that good mentality and I think that'll help more than anything.” Cori Close is the head coach of the U-19 squad and is the UCLA Women’s basketball coach.
Clark burst onto the college scene with the Hawkeyes as a freshman, leading the country in scoring, assits, 3pt field goals made and made the All-American second team. She is looking to continue that momentum into this summer with Team USA. “Just coming in, just playing my game more than anything, you're not going to make every shot. And doing the little things, obviously, it's more than just scoring the ball, it’s also playing good defense.”
She will be looking to bring home her third gold medal in three tries with Team USA.