Delle Donne Headed To Colorado For USA Basketball Women’s World University Games Team Trials
May 5, 2011
Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell
• USA World University Games Homepage
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Rising junior All-American Elena Delle Donne will have the opportunity of a lifetime on May 22-25 as she represents the University of Delaware in Colorado Springs, Colo.
A 6-5 Wilmington, Del. native, Delle Donne (at right) will head west to partake in the USA Basketball Women’s World University Game team trials in mid-May for a chance to compete for Team USA in August. She will be come the first player in Blue Hen history to represent Delaware at the team trials.
“We are excited for Elena and the opportunity to represent our country,” said veteran Delaware head coach Tina Martin. “It is a great honor to be selected to try out for the USA World University Games team.”
Nearly 30 prominent women’s basketball players from around the country will be making the trek to Colorado for the team trials, including fellow Colonial Athletic Association standout Courtney Hurt, a rising senior at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Eligible athletes for the USA team must be currently enrolled in a college or university and have remaining NCAA eligibility. The selected finalists will return to Colorado Springs on July 31 for training camp before departing for Shenzhen, China on Aug. 7 for the game. At the conclusion of training camp on August 6, the final University World Games roster will be announced.
Bill Fennelly, currently the head coach at Iowa State University, will coach the University Team and will be joined by assistants Suzie McConnell-Serio (Duquense University) and Terri Williams-Flournoy (Georgetown University).
Delle Donne, who played in just 22 games after being diagnosed with Lyme Disease, still had an outstanding season, leading the Hens with 557 points, averaging 25.3 points an outing. She set a new Delaware mark, knocking down 52 straight free throws, boosting her season percentage to a school record 94.4 percent, hitting 166 of her 177 attempts.
Midway through the conference schedule, the sophomore became the fastest played in Delaware and CAA history to reach the 1,000-point benchmark, doing so in just 38 career games. She surpassed the 55-game mark set by James Madison University standout Dawn Evans, who made the World Games Team Trials in 2009. Delle Donne’s 38 game mark is the second-fewest games in NCAA to reach 1,000 points.
For her efforts during the season, Delle Donne was named first team All-CAA while being selected as the league’s Player of the Week on four occasions. She was also selected as the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association John J. Brady Athlete of the Year.
In her young career, Delle Donne has already amassed 1,331 points in just 51 games, averaging a school record 26.1. Her per game average of 25.3 would have led the nation in 2010-11, but she did not play in the requisite 75 percent of Delaware’s 34 games this season. She is just 344 points shy of the record 1,675 career points mark set by Cindy Johnson from 1997-2001.
Back To Women's Basketball Home Women's Basketball Story Archives
