Ortiz Invited to USA U19 World Team Trials

NORMAN – Oklahoma sophomore-to-be Gabbi Ortiz is among 34 of the nation's top 19-and-under athletes who have accepted invitations to attend the 2015 USA Women's U19 World Championship Team Trials, USA Basketball announced Wednesday.

It will be the first USA Basketball experience for Ortiz, who averaged 8.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and a team-best 3.5 assists her freshman season with the Sooners. The point guard was tabbed the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the league's All-Freshman team.

Ortiz is the fourth Sooner to earn an invitation to the U19 World Championship trials and the first since Aaryn Ellenberg accepted an invitation in 2011.

Trials to select the 12-member USA squad will be held May 14-17 at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The invitations were issued by the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team Committee.

Ortiz also may be considered for the 2015 USA Pan American Games and USA World University Games teams. Trials for those two teams will take place on the same dates, but at different times, as the USA U19 World Championship Team Trials.

The USA 19 World Championship team will be led by South Carolina's Dawn Staley, with assistant coaches Kim Barnes Arico of the University of Michigan and Jeff Walz of the University of Louisville.

The USA squad, which is on a quest to capture a sixth-consecutive gold medal at the U19 Worlds, will compete in the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship, hosted by Russia from July 18-26 in Chekhov.

The USA team will regroup for training July 1-7 at the USOTC prior to traveling to Alicante, Spain, to compete in a round-robin tournament July 11-13 against U19 national teams from Australia, Canada and Spain prior to arriving in Russia for the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship.

Only U.S. citizen who are 19 years old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1996) are eligible for the 2015 USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team.