June 20, 2007
TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State rising junior guard Briann January has been selected to represent the United States as a member of the U.S. William Jones Cup Team, which will compete July 11-17 in Taipei, Taiwan.
January will be joining La Toya Micheaux of Texas A&M; Rachel Allison and Jhasmin Player of Baylor, Heather Ezell of Iowa State, Sarah-Jo Lawrence of George Washington, Jackie McFarland of Colorado, Angie Nelp of Colorado State, Kendra Reed of Southern Mississippi, Leah Rush of Oklahoma, Brittanie Taylor-James of North Carolina A&T and Katie Vieth of Kentucky. The team will be coached by Texas A&M associate women's basketball head coach Vic Schaefer in association with Athletes in Action (AIA).
The U.S. will be one of seven countries participating in the single-round robin tournament along with two teams representing Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Korea. This is the first year that the women's Jones Cup team will be sponsored by AIA which is an associate member of USA Basketball. The team will train in College Station from July 1-7 and will depart for Taiwan on July 8.
After being named to the Pac-10's All-Freshman team in 2006, January turned in another outstanding season in 2007, finishing first on the team in both assists (4.0 apg) and steals (2.1 spg), second in scoring (10.2 ppg) and second in free throw percentage (.817). January's play sparked the Sun Devils in the first two games of the NCAA Tournament, leading them in come-from-behind wins over UC-Riverside and Louisville. In the two games January averaged 18.5 points while shooting .600 from the field (12-20).
January is the second member from the ASU women's basketball program to be invited to participate in international competition. ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne is currently serving as an assistant coach on the USA U21 World Championship team, which will be competing at the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship (June 29-July 8) in Moscow, Russia.
Athletes in Action is a nonprofit Christian organization. It relies heavily on financial contributions toward its ministry for all of the activities it conducts. Each member of the Jones Cup team is being asked to raise funds that will go toward the team goal. The money raised will go toward tour expenses such as airfare to training camp; airfare to Taiwan; food and lodging; ministry materials and other travel expenses.
Those interested in contributing to the U.S. Jones Cup Team tour to Taiwan should contact Christina Wombacher with ASU women's basketball at 480-965-6086.