Basketball Australia Release | 2023 FIBA U19 Women's World Cup Tournament Page
WANTIRNA SOUTH, Australia — Santa Clara University women's basketball's Tess Heal will once again represent her home country on the world stage this summer, this time playing for the Australian Under-19 "Gems" at the FIBA U19 Women's World Cup in Madrid.
Heal and the Gems went undefeated to win last year's FIBA U18 Asian Championship in September, automatically qualifying them for this summer's Women's World Cup. The tournament will take place from July 15-23. The Australian U19 squad is made up of 12 players and is coached by David Herbert.
"I was very pleased with the talent and standard of play at our recent U19 World Cup selection camp," Herbert said in a Basketball Australia release. "All players competed with high intensity and showed a maturity above their years to pick up the Australian style of play that was implemented.
"The team has the potential to come together and challenge for the FIBA U19 World Cup and if they play with a selfless, team-first mentality and come together, which I know they can, they have the ability to really make an impact at this event," he added.
2023 @WCCsports Newcomer of the Year Tess Heal will join Australia Basketball's (@BasketballAus) U19 team this summer at the @FIBA U19 Women's World Cup!
— Santa Clara Women's Basketball (@Santaclarawbb) June 16, 2023
Read more on https://t.co/IJIpmotHFo ��️#StampedeTogether | #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/Y26coC149c
Group play begins for Heal and Australia on July 15 against host Spain. The Gems will also face Argentina and France in group play before the Round of 16 begins on July 19. All games are viewable on Youtube.com/FIBA.
Heal is coming off a record-setting freshman year in 2022-23. She was named the WCC Newcomer of the Year, Santa Clara women's basketball's first individual major award winner in 17 years. She also landed on the all-WCC First Team and the WCC All-Freshman team. She was named WCC Freshman of the Week a record 12 times during the season. She finished the year with 562 points – fourth-most in a single season at Santa Clara. The only player to ever score more than her is Broncos' all-time leading scorer Melissa King (1990-93). Heal put her name on five other Broncos single-season top-10 record lists, including made free throws (4th, 141), made field goals (t-4th, 200) and minutes played (8th, 1,031).
Heal played in all five games of last year's FIBA U18 Asian Cup for Australia, averaging 7.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game. She shot nearly 60% from two-point range (57.9%) and was a 33.3% 3-point shooter for the Gems.
