UConn women’s basketball: Aaliyah Edwards makes Canadian AmeriCup roster

UConn women’s basketball sophomore Aaliyah Edwards was named to Canada’s roster for the 2021 AmeriCup, UConn announced on Thursday. This is the fifth time Edwards will represent her home country on the senior national team level.

The AmeriCup runs from June 11-19 and is part of the qualifying cycle for the 2022 FIBA World Cup. The top four finishers in the AmeriCup will all advance to the World Cup Qualifying Tournament, which will be held in February 2022.

Edwards was also on Canada’s roster that won silver at the most recent AmeriCup in 2019. She played in all six games, averaging 6.0 points and 2.2 rebounds in 14.6 minutes per game.

Canada will open against the US Virgin Islands on June 12 at 12:10 p.m. (all times Eastern) follower by Brazil on June 13 at 3:10 p.m. and El Salvador on June 14 at 12:10 p.m. before closing out the group stage against Colombia on June 15 at 3:10 p.m.

The United States is in the other group alongside Puerto Rico, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. While no UConn players are on the roster, Jen Rizzotti is one of the assistant coaches under Dawn Staley.

Edwards has yet to return to campus with the rest of the Huskies due to her commitments with the Canadian national team. They expected her to be away for most of June and potentially even longer if Canada makes the Olympics.

“I hope she’s not around all of July either because she’s in Tokyo,” head coach Geno Auriemma said in late May.

As a freshman, Edwards averaged 10.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while being named the Big East Sixth Woman of the Year and earned a spot on the Big East All-Freshman Team.