The best of the FIBA U17 Women's WC 2012: History for Mali, 13 year old ace Park, USA stay perfect

06/05/2022

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The best of the FIBA U17 Women's WC 2012: History for Mali, 13 year old ace Park, USA stay perfect

MIES (Switzerland) - Following on from a successful first-ever edition two years earlier, the FIBA U17 Women's Basketball World Cup landed in Amsterdam in 2012 and there was lots to love.

Here's our review of what went down in the Netherlands and you can also check out our wrap of the 2010 edition here.

The best team and still unbeaten: USA

Having went 8-0 at the inaugural 2010 edition, reigning champions USA repeated that feat in Amsterdam to extend their perfect record to 16 games. As they did in France, USA were rampant for the most part, although they did have to work hard to win the Final against Spain, eventually riding out 75-62 winners.

USA were too strong for Spain on the boards with a massive 59 rebounds, helped by a double-double of 13 points and 12 boards from Rebecca Greenwell. Diamond DeShields also capped off a fine tournament with 13 points, while her teammate Lindsay Allen pulled the strings with 6 assists and that resulted in her finishing top of that chart for the competition.

Rank	Team	W-L
1.	USA	8-0
2.	Spain	5-3
3.	Canada	5-3
4.	Japan	5-3
5.	Australia	5-3
6.	Italy	5-3
7.	Belgium	3-5
8.	Netherlands	4-4
9.	Korea	3-4
10.	Mali	1-6
11.	Brazil	2-5
12.	Turkey	0-7

The best player: DeShields leads the way

From left to right : Linnae Harper, Leticia Romera, Diamond DeShields, Yunika Nakumura and Evelyn Mawuli

Diamond DeShields was the pivotal figure for the champions throughout and was handed the MVP trophy after averaging 14.8 points. 5.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Her gold medal came a year after winning the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup when she played despite being three years younger than some of her teammates. DeShields was joined in the All-Star Five by USA teammate Linnae Harper whose defense was incredible (7.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.1 steals, and 2.4 assists per game).

Leticia Romero was rewarded for propelling Spain to a silver medal (13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game). Japan missed out on the podium having made the Semi-Finals. Still, their exciting style and brand of basketball won plenty of fans and it saw their two top performers Evelyn Mawuli ( 9.4 points, 9.5 rebounds per game) and Yunika Nakumura (17.8 points, 6.5 rebounds per game) taking places in the prestigious lineup.

The best victory: Mali take first win for Africa

In addition to USA keeping their crown, the other big headline in Amsterdam was undoubtedly a first-ever win for Africa in the competition. With Mali having gone winless in 2010, they got off the mark with a landmark first victory for themselves and for their continent, They beat Brazil 58-51, with Mariam Maiga the hero as she netted a memorable 18 points.

The best game: Canada vs Netherlands

It may have been low scoring at 56-55, but the absolute drama and intensity of the Quarter-Finals matchup between Canada and Netherlands was incredible. In the end, there was heartbreak for the hosts as Canada squeezed out the win behind a fine 18 points from Kia Nurse. Canada went on to take the bronze medal, with Nurse establishing herself as a leader and star for the senior national team in subsequent years.

The best performance: Hind Ben Abdelkader - Belgium

Take your pick. Never has a player been so dominant scoring-wise across multiple games at youth events. Belgian talent Ben Abdelkader was a walking bucket and still is to this day. She was the tournament's top scorer with 19.4 points per game and incredibly. accrued four of the top eight individual points tallies in the competition. She twice scored 29 points, with perhaps the most potent being an 8 of 11 shooting effort against Korea. Notably, Ben Abdelkader just returned to the Belgian Cats after a long hiatus and is now eying up a spot at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Sydney.

The hidden star: Saori Miyazaki - Japan

The guard was part of a Japan team that reached the Semi-Finals but just fell short of the podium. Miyazaki was not always a leading player for her side, only 5th in minutes per game (24 minutes per game) and 5th in points scored (7.4 points per game). However, she still managed to lead Japan in assists and that was a sign that she was something of a hidden gem. Fast forward almost a decade to 2021 and Myazaki appeared at Tokyo 2020 to help her country take that historic silver medal, also being the most efficient baller and second top scorer at the FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2021 when Japan won the title.

The 13 year-old phenomenon: Jisu Park - Korea

Three (and in some cases almost four) years younger than most players at the event, this was the first of many footsteps for the Korean phenomenon. She almost logged a debut tournament double-double (9.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game) and as she would prove in later years, she's a shot-blocking machine, leading the competition with a massive 27 swats. Meanwhile to truly put into context what an incredible young baller she was, just two years after appearing in Amsterdam, she was the leader for the Korea senior team at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in 2014 - aged just 15-years-old.

The best story: NBA All-Star star watches daughter, Kaela Davis - USA

Former NBA baller and 2001 All-Star Antonio Davis was present in Amsterdam to proudly watch his daughter Kaela win gold for USA (8.8 points, 3.9 rebounds per game). Her dad played for a host of NBA clubs including the Pacers, Raptors, Bulls and Magic and he went on to watch Kaela play in the WNBA and most notably, win the EuroCup Women title in 2018 with Galatasaray.