Pondexter, Carson Invited to USA Basketball Trials
May 10 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, NJ – Rutgers’ Cappie Pondexter (Chicago, IL) and Essence Carson (Paterson, NJ) have been invited to the 2005 USA Basketball Women’s National Team Trials May 19-22. Following the trials, finalists will be named for the 12-member USA Women’s Under-19 World Championship Team as well as the 12-member USA World University Games Team.
Pondexter, a 5-9 guard, will only be eligible for the World University Games Team. This season, she was a candidate for three national player-of-the-year awards (Naismith, State Farm Wade Trophy, Wooden Women’s Award) as well as the Nancy Lieberman Award (top point guard) and Bayer Advantage Senior CLASS Award. Pondexter also was named to the 2004-2005 Associated Press (third team), Full Court Press (third team) and Kodak/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (honorable mention) All-America Teams, the Kodak/ WBCA All-Region 1 Team, the BIG EAST All-First Team and the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team, and was the NCAA Tournament Philadelphia Regional’s Most Outstanding Performer. She averaged 14.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game this season, posting 19 double-digit scoring efforts (seven 20+ points) in 27 appearances.
Pondexter, who will be a fifth-year senior on the Scarlet Knight squad next fall, spent four straight summers with the USA Basketball program as a member of the U.S. 20-and-Under National Team. She led the Americans to the gold medal at the 2003 FIBA World Championship For Young Women in Sibenik, Croatia, serving as the team co-captain and the starting point guard while averaging 5.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game. Pondexter won a gold medal at the 2002 World Championship For Young Women Qualifying Tournament in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, posting a tournament-best 6.5 assists-per-game average as the starting point guard and a team co-captain. She tallied 8.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game and shot 51.9 (14-27) percent from the field and 62.5 (5-8) percent from three-point range at the 2002 qualifying tournament. As a member of the 2001 U.S. Junior National Team, she won a bronze medal at the FIBA World Junior Championships in Prague, Czech Republic, and she also was a member of the 2000 U.S. Junior World Championship Qualifying Team that struck gold in Mardelplata, Argentina.
Carson, a 6-0 guard, will be considered for the World University Games Team, as well as the U-19 World Championship Team. She started 23 of 35 games as a freshman, ranking fifth for the Scarlet Knights in scoring (6.6 ppg) and second in rebounding (5.5 rpg). A member of the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) All-Second Team, she was named the BIG EAST Conference Freshman of the Week Jan. 10.
Carson helped lead the 2004 U.S. Women’s Junior World Championship Qualifying Team to a gold medal in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, averaging 8.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. She also played on the 2003 USA Basketball Youth Development Festival East Team that won a gold medal.
Fifty-seven of the nation’s top players will participate in the trials May 19-22 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. Finalists for both teams will be announced following the May 22 session.
The 2005 FIBA Women’s U-19 World Championship is scheduled to run July 15-24 in Hammamet and Tunis, Tunisia. To be eligible for the 2005 team, an athlete must have been born on or after Jan. 1, 1986.
The World University Games, held every two years, is a multi-sport competition open to men and women between the ages of 17 and 28 (born between Jan. 1, 1977, and Dec. 31, 1987) who are, or have been within the last year, a student at a college or university. The 2005 World University Games will be held Aug. 11-21 in Imzir, Turkey.
