Huskies Fudd, DeBerry going for gold at FIBA World Cup

By Alexa Philippou

Before they return to UConn for the start of the school year and the 2021-22 basketball season, Huskies freshmen Azzi Fudd and Amari DeBerry have some business to take care of: helping the U.S. take home gold.

Fudd and DeBerry are part of the 12-player U19 team that will go for gold in the FIBA U19 World Cup, which began Saturday in Debrecen, Hungary. The U.S. kicked off tournament play with a 96-37 win over Italy. The games are available to stream for free at https://www. youtube.com/fiba.

DeBerry, a 6-foot-5 forward from Williamsville, N.Y., and Fudd, a 5-11 guard from Arlington, Va., have previously won gold with USA Basketball. DeBerry won at the 2019 FIBA Americas U16 Championship and Fudd at the 2017 FIBA Americas

U16 Championship and the 2018 FIBA U17 World Cup.

Sixteen nations will participate and the U.S., the defending champion, has won seven of the last eight tournaments since 2005 and eight overall.

The U.S. team also includes Lauren Betts (Stanford commit), Sonia Citron (Notre Dame), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Sania Feagin (South Carolina), Diamond Johnson (NC State), Te-Hina Paopao (Oregon),

Jewel Spear (Wake Forest), Payton Verhulst (Louisville), Lauren Ware (Arizona) and Jersey Wolfenbarger (Arkansas).

Citron led all scorers Saturday with 15 points. Fudd played 21 minutes (one of four players on the team to log more than 20) and finished with five points on 2-3 shooting, along with two rebounds, three assists and one steal. DeBerry played for six minutes and chipped in two points, one rebound and one block.

The rest of the U.S.’s schedule: Sunday: vs. Australia 2 p.m. ET (group play)

Tuesday: vs. Egypt 2:30 p.m. ET (group play)

Wednesday: Round of 16

Friday: Quarterfinals

Aug. 14: Semifinals

Aug. 15: Medal games