Oregon’s Ionescu named to AP All-America team
Published 8:41 am Tuesday, April 2, 2019
- Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu dribbles the ball against Southern California.
NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu has rewritten the NCAA record book for triple-doubles and helped the Ducks reach the Final Four for the first time.
Monday, she earned a spot on The Associated Press women’s basketball All-America team.
She has 18 triple-doubles in her career, including one in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Indiana. She averaged 19.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.1 assists during the regular season for the Ducks.
What’s impressed her coach, Kelly Graves, is her competitiveness.
“She’s defined our program since she got here. The fortunes of our program have turned since she got here,” he said. “To go to the Elite Eight and what she’s done that three years, that’s crazy. We had only won five total NCAA games in the history of the program. She doesn’t take plays off and hates to lose.”
She was joined on the All-America team by UConn’s Napheesa Collier, Iowa’s Megan Gustafson, Louisville’s Asia Durr and Mississippi State’s Teaira McCowan. Voting was done before the NCAA Tournament by the 28-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week.
The second team consisted of Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale, Baylor’s Kalani Brown, California’s Kristine Anigwe, Stanford’s Alanna Smith and Iowa State’s Bridget Carleton.
UConn’s Katie Lou Samuelson headlined the third team. She was joined by Notre Dame teammates Jessica Shepard and Jackie Young, Baylor’s Lauren Cox and Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham.
Durr, Ionescu, Samuelson, Ogunbowale and Brown made up the preseason All-America team.