Former Grandview High School basketball star Lauren Betts and the USA Women’s AmericaCup team is off to a 3-1 start at the 2023 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup tournament currently going on in Leon, Mexico.
The 6-foot-7 Betts helped lead the Wolves to three Class 5A state championship game appearances and one victory before she signed with Stanford, where she played for a season before transferring to UCLA.
Betts, 19, made the cut for the AmeriCup Team — which also features Angel Reese of national champion LSU — and has primarily come off the bench for the team coached by Washington State’s Kamie Ethridge. She had her biggest game of the tournament Wednesday with 17 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots as the Americans rebounded from a loss to Brazil the previous day for a 106-44 victory over Cuba.
“I’m just super-proud of how we came together,” Betts told USA Basketball. “Today’s a big bounce back from that last (Brazil) game. I thought we bought a lot of energy today and I think that we executed really well on offense and I’m just really proud of how we came together. Played really good team ball.”
Betts started in the U.S. team’s 67-54 loss to Brazil July 4 and she finished 11 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots. She’s had double-doubles in three of the four contests as she also went for 10 points and 11 rebounds in a tough 65-56 win over Argentina July 1, while her totals for an 80-54 opening win over Venezuela were four points and seven rebounds.
The Americans finished second in their pool behind Brazil and advance to the quarterfinals, which are scheduled for July 7 with semifinals on July 8 and medal games on July 9.
The roster was picked by the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee along with Jennifer Rizzotti, who is the chair of the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee. Betts was among the original eight players to make the cut in May, while the rest of the roster was announced prior to a training camp at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Betts is no stranger to international play, as she played on American teams that won gold medals at the 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary, and the 2019 FIBA Americans U16 Championship in Puerto Ayres, Chile.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
