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UPDATED – 3:30 p.m. WEDNESDAY  MAY 31

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—  The jury is in and a verdict has been reached.  The USA Basketball 2017 U16 National team has a final roster.  The selection process began with 133 athletes and was trimmed to 88, 64, 37, 18 and ultimately the 12 who will compete for the red, white and blue in Buenos Aires for the 2017 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.  The process began six days ago and featured a large a large majority of the athletes who represent the future of girls’ basketball at the scholastic, club and collegiate levels.

The 12 team members will be out to regain the Gold Medal that took on a dissapointing Bonze tint the last time around in 2015.  Head Coach Carla Berube (Tufts University) has a versatile roster to call upon when competition begins on the 7th of June.  The 2019 graduating class has eight representatives in the mix with the 2020 class claiming three and the final member getting her diploma in 2021.  That youthful member is point guard AzziFudd (Falls Church, Va.) who becomes the youngest player ever to represent the US in U16 competition.  Forward Sam Brunelle (Ruckersville, Va.) is the only player with experience having been a part of last summer’s Bronze Medal U17 World Championship team.  Ohio and Virginia each claim two geographical daughters with the rest being spread among 10 other states.

Once again the final roster includes athletes who competed in the “open” process alongside the 35 invited participants to the trials.  Fudd (above) and forward Diamond Miller (Somerset, N.J.) made their cases in convincing fashion earning the right to be part of the USA U16 National Team.

Links to all the Blue Star Media coverage from the start of the trialS are listed at the bottom of this article.

Below are images of the 12 member team followed by the six who made it to the final cut Wednesday in Colorado Springs.

The six athletes below survived the trials and two days of practices before coming up just short in their effort to be a part of the 2017 USA U16 National Team.

Mike Flynn

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/getting-right-mix/

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/next-cycle-please/

Lisa Bodine

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/blue-star-30-athletes-take-usa-basketball-stage/

Mark Lewis

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/2017-usa-basketball-u16-finalists/

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/usa-u16-trials-day-two-triple-play/

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/usa-u16-trials-day-three-triple-play/

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/usa-u16-trials-day-four-triple-play/

http://www.bluestarmedia.org/day-one-usa-2017-u16-trials/

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Mark Lewis is a national evaluator and photographer for Blue Star Basketball as well as the lead columnist for Blue Star Media. Twice ranked as one of the top 25 Division I assistant coaches in the game by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), he logged 25 years of college coaching experience at Memphis State, Cincinnati, Arizona State, Western Kentucky and Washington State. Lewis serves as a member of the prestigious McDonald’s All-American selection committee as well as the Naismith College Player and Coach of the Year committees.

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