The accomplishments continue to stack up for A'ja Wilson.
After being named the WNBA rookie of the year, Wilson has earned a spot on USA Basketball Women's World Cup team and will be one of 12 players joining USC head coach Dawn Staley in Tenerife, Spain from Sept. 22-30. Staley is the head coach of Team USA and will lead the squad through the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
The Heathwood Hall product is the first Gamecock to make it this far for Team USA since Hartsville native and current Coker College head women's basketball coach Shannon Johnson made the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team.
"I'm incredibly proud of A'ja for making the final roster of our World Cup team," Staley said in a statement.
"She showed she belonged by her plan on both sides of the ball. I'm looking forward to working with her in this capacity, but we will always be representing the Garnet and Black."
In five exhibition games leading, Wilson was the Team USA's top scorer with a 16.6 points per game average.
This is not Wilson's first appearance for USA Basketball but it is her first at this level. She has won gold medals at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Cup, the 2014 FIBA Americas U18 Cup and the 2015 FIBA U19 World Cup. She picked up MVP honors at the 2014 and 2015 events and went on to be named 2015 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year.
In her senior season at USC, she won every national player of the year award and after being the first pick in the WNBA Draft by the Las Vegas Aces, went on to sweep the league's rookie of the month awards on her way being named an All-Star and Rookie of the Year.
The Red, White and Blue open play in preliminary round Group D against Senegal at 1 p.m. EDT on Sept. 22, followed by China at 1 p.m. EDT on Sept. 23 and Latvia at 1 p.m. on Sept. 25. The USA will be seeking a third straight gold medal in the FIBA World Cup, which would be a first for the organization.
