Dangerfield injures ankle at World Cup

UConn guard Crystal Dangerfield suffered an injured ankle during the United States’ FIBA U19 World Cup against Puerto Rico. Dangerfield’s status for Friday’s quarterfinal game is unknown.

It was a bit of a good news/bad news kind of day at the FIBA U19 World Cup for UConn guard Crystal Dangerfield.

The rising sophomore had six points, seven rebounds and six assists as the six-time defending champion U.S. squad rolled past Puerto Rico 104-46 to advance to the quarterfinals. However, Dangerfield injured an ankle early in the fourth quarter after going up for a 3-pointer. Dangerfield left the game and her availability for Friday’s quarterfinals against France may not be known until Friday.

If Dangerfield can continue, she has a chance at the U.S. U19 records for assists in a tournament. Ariel Massengale had 39 in 2011 and Alexis Jones matched that total in 2013. Jones has the career record for the U.S. with 45 assists, four more than Dangerfield has recorded in the 2015 and 2017 tournaments.

While Dangerfield’s shot has been a little off during the tournament, she leads the team with 22 assists in four games and has only committed six turnovers in 98 minutes.

Dangerfield was 2 for 9 from the field against Puerto Rico with three of the misses coming in a span of 12 seconds in the second quarter as Dangerfield pulled down three of her five offensive rebounds.

Dangerfield didn’t need to look for her own shot against a winless Puerto Rico squad.

Ruthy Hebard had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead five U.S. players in double figures and Tyasha Harris set a U.S. U19 record with 10 assists breaking the mark of nine set by Ariel Massengale in 2011 and matched by Dangerfield in a pool-play win over Italy on Tuesday.

Joyner Holmes had 13 points. She also had 11 of the United States’ U19 single-game record 72 rebounds and nine of the 38 offensive rebounds. Alecia Sutton had 12 points, UConn Class of 2018 recruiting target Christyn Williams added 11 points and five rebounds and Chennedy Carter finished with 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. UConn incoming freshman Megan Walker had nine points, three rebounds and four assists.

Former Capital Prep star Angelique Rodriguez and Nicolette Oppenheimer had 13 points to lead Puerto Rico.