USC And UCLA Freshmen Help U.S. Win FIBA U19 Women's World Cup

Forbes

3 days ago

High School Basketball: McDonalds All-American Game: West Team Jazzy Davidson (6) in action, ... More dribbles vs East Team during the game at Barclays Center. Brooklyn, NY 4/1/2025 CREDIT: Erick W. Rasco (Photo by Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X164703 TK1)
USC and UCLA are located about 15 miles from each other in Los Angeles. The schools are not only among the most prestigious academically in the nation, but their sports programs have been rivals for decades.
Starting this fall, the women's basketball programs will have two impressive freshmen who are likely to be going head-to-head over the next few seasons: USC's Jazzy Davidson and UCLA's Sienna Betts.
On Sunday, Davidson and Betts were teammates and helped the U.S. win the FIBA U19 Women's World Cup, defeating Australia, 88-76, in the final.
Saniyah Hall, ESPN's No. 1 recruit in the high school class of 2026 and a rising senior, scored a game-high 25 points and added nine rebounds and seven assists. Hall, a 6-foot guard who doesn't turn 17 until July 30, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after averaging 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 steals per game as the U.S. went 7-0.
Meanwhile, Davidson, a 6-foot-1 guard and ESPN's No. 1 recruit in the high school class of 2025, had 21 points, 6 rebounds and 5 steals on Sunday. Betts, a 6-foot-4 forward and ESPN's No. 2 recruit in the class of 2025, had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Betts was named to the All-Star Five, an honor given to the event's five best players after averaging 14.6 points, 10 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game, while Davidson was named to the All-Second team after averaging 14.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3 steals per game.
Betts is the younger sister of Lauren Betts, a 6-foot-7 center at UCLA who was a first-team Associated Press All-American and the Naismith defensive player of the year last season. Lauren Betts, who averaged 20.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocker per game last season, is projected as the No. 1 pick in next year's WNBA draft, according to ESPN.
Besides the Betts sisters, UCLA returns last season's second- and third-leading scorers in guard Kiki Rice (12.8 points per game) and forward Gabriela Jaquez (9.6 points), the sister of Jamie Jaquez, Jr., a former UCLA star and current Miami Heat player. The Bruins also have a talented transfer in guard Gianna Kneepkens, who averaged 19.3 points per game and made 44.8% of her 3-poimters last season. Kneepkens was a member of the U.S. team that won the FIBA Women's AmeriCup earlier this month.
Davidson is joining a USC team that is in a state of flux with All-American guard JuJu Watkins coming off a knee surgery. Watkins, who won the AP national player of the year last season and averaged 23.9 points per game, sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the second round of the NCAA tournament. USC has not commented on when Watkins will return, but she should miss significant time this coming season.
With Watkins out, the Trojans will rely more on Kennedy Smith, a guard who averaged 9.5 points per game as a freshman last season. They also added two transfer guards in Kara Dunn, who averaged 15.5 points for Georgia Tech last season, and Londynn Jones, who averaged 8.5 points per game for UCLA last season. But they lost a pair of guards in Avery Howell, who transferred to Washington, and Kayleigh Heckel, who transferred to UConn.
Heckel, a 5-foot-9 guard, was on the U.S. team that won the U19 title on Sunday. She averaged 9 points per game, good for fourth on the team, and started each of the seven games. Jordan Lee, a 6-foot guard who is entering her sophomore year at the University of Texas, was the U.S.'s other starter alongside Heckel, Hall, Betts and Davidson.
The other members of the team were rising Indiana sophomore Zania Socka, who transferred from UCLA; Emilee Skinner, an incoming freshman guard at Duke and the No. 4 ranked player in the high school class of 2025; four rising high school seniors in guards Kate Harpring (ranked No. 4 in the class of 2026), Jerzy Robinson (No. 5), Maddyn Greenway (No. 11) and Addison Bjorn (No. 13); and Sydney Douglas, a 6-foot-5 forward who is entering her sophomore year at Centennial High School in southern California. Douglas is ESPN's No. 2 recruit in the class of 2028.
The U.S has now won four consecutive FIBA U19 Women's World Cup titles. The previous teams were filled with future college stars and WNBA players, including Aliyah Boston (2019), Cameron Brink (2019), Paige Bueckers (2019), Caitlin Clark (2019 and 2021), Lauren Betts (2021), Azi Fudd (2021), Madison Booker (2023) and Hannah Hidalgo (2023). It's a safe bet that at least a few of the players who won the championship on Sunday will be excelling at the college and professional levels in the coming years, too.