Hanson Embarks On Duties With Sweden
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State rising sophomore Gabriella Hanson left Corvallis on Friday and is heading to Europe to begin her duties as a member of Sweden’s U20 Women’s National Team. The Swedes will be in Lisbon, Portugal for training camp and exhibition contests before heading Italy for the FIBA U20 European Championship for Women – Division A, held in the northeastern city of Udine from July 3-13.
Sweden is in Group C with Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine and opens the tournament on Thursday, July 3 against the Ukrainians (7:15 a.m. PT). It will match up with Slovaks on Friday, July 4 (5 a.m. PT) and Serbia on Saturday, July 5 (5 a.m. PT) in the tournament’s opening round of action.
This will be the fourth consecutive summer Hanson has suited up for Sweden. Hailing from Orange County, Calif., she is eligible to play for the Swedes because her father, Jorgen, was born and raised in the country.
Last August, Hanson led Sweden to an eighth-place finish at the FIBA U18 European Championship for Women in Croatia. She paced her squad in rebounds (7.2), assists (2.4) and steals (2.4) per game during the 10-day tournament and finished 12th at those European Championships in rebounding, seventh in steals and 13th in assists, posting her averages in 27.2 minutes per contest. Hanson had three double-digit rebounding efforts and was second on the team in scoring at 6.3 points per game.
At the FIBA U18 Women’s European Championships in Romania in August 2012, Hanson averaged 9.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in eight games against the likes of Poland, France, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Russia, Slovenia and Slovakia. In nine games at the FIBA U16 European Championships in 2011, she was second on Sweden with averages of 10.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game and led the team with 2.3 assists and 2.4 steals.
Out of the 16 teams participating, only four will be eliminated from championship contention after the preliminary round. The first three finishers in each group will advance to the Second Round, where they will be split into two groups of six and play three more games. The top four in each group after the Second Round will advance to the Quarterfinals, where the tournament becomes single elimination and teams must win to advance.
At Oregon State in 2013-14, Hanson earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Honorable Mention squad and stepped up big time in conference action, averaging 9.7 points per game and shooting a league-best 48.1 percent from behind the arc.
Hanson joins a trio of Oregon State women’s basketball players already suiting up with national squads this summer. Ruth Hamblin and Jamie Weisner are in camp with the Canadian Senior Women’s National Team and are on the roster for the Edmonton Grads International Classic against Brazil from June 26-28. Incoming freshman Marie Gülich is with Germany’s U20 Women’s National Team, which is training in advance of the FIBA U20 European Championship for Women – Division B in Sofia, Bulgaria in early July.
