The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

JONQUEL Jones leads Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) into the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournament this weekend in Osaka, Japan.

BIH is grouped with Canada and Japan. They will face Canada on February 12 and Japan on February 13. The top three placed teams of each qualifying tournament will qualify for FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 in Sydney, Australia.

Belarus pulled out of the four-team tournament last week, therefore, all of the aforementioned teams are assured a spot in Australia.

All four qualifying events will take place February 10-13, qualifying a total of 10 teams to complete the 12-team field for the World Cup.

The 19th edition of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup is scheduled for September 22 to October 1, 2022.

Qualifiers are played through continental regions such as the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.

The regional tournaments are taking place in, Japan, Washington DC, and Belgrade, Serbia.

The FIBA Women’s Basketball 2022 World Cup serves as a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In her last appearance for BIH at the national team level, Jones delivered a series of dominant performances at FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023 Qualifiers in November 2021. She finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds in an 80-64 win over North Macedonia and a career high 44 points and 22 rebounds in her team’s 87-81 win over Belgium.

The second leg of the qualifiers will take place in 2022 when Bosnia and Herzegovina will face Germany on November 24 and Belgium on November 27. In 2023, they will face North Macedonia on February 9 and Germany on February 12.

In the FIBA Women’s EuroLeague, Jones has averaged 16.4 points and nine rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent from the field and 48 percent from three-point range through 10 games.

Her UMMC Ekaterinburg club (13-0) looks to complete the regular season undefeated when they host MBA Moscow on February 23 at MC Sport Place in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

In the Russian Premier League, the Foxes are also perfect at 16-0. Jones is averaging 17.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.

The Sun recently announced that the reigning WNBA MVP signed a multi-year contract to return to the franchise. “I am so happy to be back in Connecticut,” said Jones. “This organisation has believed in me since day one and I definitely feel like we have unfinished business. “The fans want it, the front office wants it and the players want it. So now we just have to go out and get it done and bring a chip back to Mohegan Sun.”

In her fifth WNBA season, Jones averaged 19.4 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.26 blocked shots, and 1.26 steals in 31.7 minutes in 27 games.

The 6’ 6” forward led the WNBA in rebounding and defensive rebounding (8.7 per game) and ranked fourth in scoring and 10th in blocks.

She received 48 of 49 first-place votes and 487 total points from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters to win the league’s MVP.

Jones was also unanimously selected to the 2021 All-WNBA First Team for the first time. She told Clutchpoints about the differences in the WNBA and international play. She stated: “I think overseas in general, the crowd has a bigger appreciation for women’s basketball. I think it is way better than it is in the WNBA. You can go from a game where the gym is full to some games where there are a few people in the stands. I do not think they fully appreciate women’s basketball and the level it is played at,” Jones said.

“When I come overseas I definitely always appreciate that and appreciate people loving us and watching us, and understanding that we put a lot of time in our game. I think that is the biggest difference. WNBA, talent wise, is up there, there is a lot of talent every night and every team can win. Overall, the atmosphere overseas is second to none,” she said.