PALO ALTO (NCAA Women) - Chiney Ogwumike is thriving in the sport of basketball, be it in a USA jersey or with the Stanford Cardinal.
If the third-year NCAA women’s star keeps up the good work, she’ll have every chance of making the USA squad at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey.
The 1.92m forward was this week among the players named in the John R. Wooden Award's Midseason Top 20.
Ogwumike goes into Friday night's clash with Utah as one of the hottest players in the game, averaging 22 points and 11.9 rebounds.
In her team's last game, a 75-66 victory over the University of Southern California, the Texas native poured in 23 of her 29 points in the second half and also had 16 boards as Stanford improved to 16-2 on the season.
The Cardinal are the only side in 2012-13 to have beaten Brittney Griner-led Baylor, the defending NCAA champions.
With the United States, Ogwumike captured gold medals at the 2008 and 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Women.
At the 2010 event, she was the tournament's leading shooter (60.9 FG pct.) and she also led the United States team in scoring (13.2 ppg).
In 2011, she helped fire the Americans to the World University Games title.
Last summer, Ogwumike was in the USA team that beat France in the Final of the FIBA 3x3 World Championship in Athens, Greece.
Chiney is not the only Ogwumike likely to feature for the USA women’s team in the years ahead.
Her older sister, Stanford graduate Nnemkadi Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Sparks, was named as the 2012 WNBA Rookie of the Year.
