Wiese, Hamblin Set For University Games
Oregon State guard Sydney Wiese and center Ruth Hamblin are both set to compete in the World University Games, which will begin this weekend in South Korea. Wiese is making her debut for Team USA, while Hamblin continues her career with the Canadian National Team. Both teams will tip off the tournament at 6 p.m. PT on July 4th, with the USA taking on Italy and Canada facing Hungary. Several of the USA’s games will be carried live on the ESPN family of networks, including Saturday’s game on ESPNU. A full schedule of games for the USA and Canada is listed below. Wiese earned All-Pac-12 First Team honors for the second consecutive season this year, scoring 12.7 points per game and finishing the year second in the conference with 179 assists. Wiese shot 44.9 percent from the field, 41.8 percent from 3-point range, and led the Beavers with an average of 32.5 minutes per game. Hamblin earned numerous honors for her performance with the Beavers this season, including AP Third Team All-America, Pac-12 Player of the Year (Media), Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year (Media and Coaches), All-Pac-12 (Media and Coaches) and Pac-12 All-Academic First Team honors. She averaged 12.9 points per game, and pulled down 8.6 rebounds per contest. Her total of 122 blocks this season was good for seventh in the nation and first in the conference. The 6-foot-6 Canadian is Oregon State’s all-time leader in career blocks with 295. Her career field goal percentage of 56.4 is good for third in school history, and her 58 percent shooting this year was eighth in the nation.
Ducks Abroad
The latest annual overseas service project for UO student-athletes took 19 Ducks to Dominican Republic, where they built a basketball court for a community of Haitian immigrants in June. Accompanied by women’s tennis coach Alison Silverio and four other athletic department administrators, the group of students representing nine UO sports spent seven full days in Batey 7, an agricultural community in the southern region of Dominican Republic. The Ducks lived and worked in the community of about 1,500, coming away enriched by the experience of providing for a needy community, and newly appreciative of life back home. “It was probably one of the most valuable experiences I’ve ever had,” said Jillian Alleyne from women’s basketball. “And I’m sure I could speak for everyone else in that I have a whole new outlook on life.” This was the fourth year in a row a UO contingent travelled to Latin America for a project through the Courts for Kids program, and the second trip to Dominican Republic. The Ducks levelled a dirt surface and laid the foundation for a basketball court, but their interactions with the locals – and each other – seem to have been the most memorable aspects.