Ohio State Buckeyes: Cotie McMahon to play for Team USA again

Cotie McMahon is going to play for her country again.

The Ohio State basketball standout from Centerville is among the 12 players chosen to be part of the USA Women’s U-19 National Team after three days of trials in Colorado Springs, Col.

The team is set to compete in the 2023 FIBA U-19 Women’s World Cup this summer in Madrid.

McMahon started all 36 games for Ohio State last season as the Buckeyes made the Elite Eight for the first time in 30 years.

She averaged 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals in 29.1 minutes per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor and assuming a larger role when veteran guards Madison Greene and Jacy Sheldon were injured during the season.

She had 14 twenty-point games and scored in double figures 26 times with a high of 30 points against South Florida in December.

Among freshman in the NCAA last season, McMahon ranked third in field goals made, fourth in field goal percentage, fourth in free throw attempts, fifth in points, sixth in free throws made, ninth in scoring and 12th in steals.

McMahon helped Team USA’s U-18 women’s team to a gold medal at the Americas Championship last summer when she averaged 14.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.

Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff cited that experience multiple times as helping her hit the ground running with the Buckeyes last fall.

The other players to make the team are Madison Booker, Aalyah Del Rosario, Jadyn Donovan, Joyce Edwards, Hannah Hidalgo, Londynn Jones, Chloe Kitts, Talana Lepolo, Kiki Rice, Grace VanSlooten and Allie Ziebell.

The 16-team 2023 FIBA U-19 Women’s World Cup is set to begin July 15.

The team will reconvene in Colorado Springs for training camp July 2 with a roster that includes athletes who enrolled early or were college freshman last season and members of the high school graduating classes of 2023 or 2024. Athletes eligible for this team must be U.S. citizens born on or after January 1, 2004.

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