The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

JONQUEL Jones was a one-woman wrecking crew en route to leading her Bosnia and Herzegovina programme to a FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 qualification.

Jones led BIH to a 1-1 record and was named TISSOT MVP and a member of the All-Tournament team at the World Cup Qualifying Tournament last weekend in Osaka, Japan.

The reigning WNBA MVP continues to solidify her place as one of the best players in the world and averaged 25.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 52 percent from the field and 44 percent from three.

In game one she finished with 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals in a 96-64 loss to Canada.

In the tournament clincher, she finished with 36 points and 23 rebounds in an 87-82 win over the host country. She shot 14-24 from the field, 2-6 from three-point range and also added four assists in 39 minutes.

“Extremely happy with the result, extremely happy with the fight in the team. Everybody stepping up and playing their roles to the best of their abilities and being able to pull out the win,” Jones said.

“I feel happy every time I play the game. I always find something that I can be better at and I feel like my finishing could be better. I feel like I could have had 10 more points, I missed a lot of freebies around the rim, but that’s just the way of the game…I could have had five points and I’ll be happy as long as we win.”

Japan’s hot shooting from three-point range sparked a 12 point advantage at the half, 46-38. Jones took over down the stretch and was determined not to replicate the same mistakes her team made in game one. BIH eventually outscored Japan 23-12 to complete the come-from-behind win.

“It wasn’t our best game against Canada and we knew it,” she said. “We understand that game didn’t define us and we played good basketball and took pride in what we do.”

BIH head coach Goran Lojo echoed his star’s sentiments: “We didn’t quit whole game even when Japan shot 50 percent on three-pointers at halftime, and they even keep that percentage up almost until the last quarter.”

All three teams from Group A - BIH, Japan and Canada will qualify for the 19th edition of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup which is scheduled for September 22 to October 1, 2022 in Sydney, Australia.

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

Jones continues to lead BIH to a series of milestones for their national team programme. She led the team to an historic fith-place finish at Women’s EuroBasket 2021 and continued that dominance at the Eurobasket 2023 Qualifiers last November. 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 face Germany on November 24 and Belgium on November 27.

In 2023, they are slated to 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.