Salpointe Class of 2025 talent Taliyah Henderson is a member of Canada’s U18 Women’s National Team roster for the upcoming FIBA U18 Women’s AmeriCup 2024, it was announced Sunday.
The FIBA U18 Women’s AmeriCup will be held this week at the Coliseo Bicentenario in Bucaramanga, Colombia. The field will comprise the top eight teams from across the Americas zone.
Canada was drawn into Group A and will compete against Argentina tomorrow at 3:40 p.m., Tucson time, Colombia (Tuesday at 6:10 p.m), and the Dominican Republic (Wednesday at 3:40 p.m.) in Group Phase action. All the action will be streamed live on FIBA’s YouTube channel.
Henderson, one of the most highly sought recruits in Southern Arizona history, took a break from playing for the Jason Kidd Select 17U AAU team this summer to take part in the Team Canada tryouts.
She is ranked No. 21 nationally by ESPN among Class of 2025 players. She picked up scholarship offers recently from Tennessee, Maryland and North Carolina. She already has numerous offers from Power 5 programs, including one from Adia Barnes at Arizona. Some of the others are Oregon, Utah, Arizona State, Illinois, Washington, Washington State, Iowa, BYU, San Diego, Florida State, Grand Canyon, UNLV and Utah Valley.
Henderson has dual citizenship because she was born in the Vancouver suburb of Langley, where her mother Danica is from.
“Ever since I was little, it was always a goal to either run (track) or play ( basketball) for either country (Canada or U.S.) and eventually go to the Olympics,” Henderson told AllSportsTucson.com. “I used to talk about it with my family from Canada when we would go to visit them and it was always the end goal for me. It just seems so surreal for it to be closer to a reality than a dream now and it’s really my motivation moving forward everyday.’
Henderson suffered a knee injury last summer that preempted her from continuing to participate with the Canadian team. She missed the first half of Salpointe’s 2023-24 season rehabilitating the knee.
“It has definitely been a journey since last year,” Henderson commented. “After getting injured last summer and working tirelessly to get back to playing the high school season and be better than I was before, switching club teams and a very busy spring, I feel very fortunate to be invited back to Team Canada.
“It will be such an honor to compete for Canada in the AmeriCup tournament and hopefully qualify for Worlds next summer. Wearing Canada across my chest means so much to my family and me. Obviously, I was born there and half my family still lives there, but my mom was a part of the junior Canadian program and some of the program directors when she played are still a part of the program, so that’s pretty cool. I’m definitely not taking a single part of this journey for granted and enjoying the process.”
In addition to being an honor student at Salpointe, Henderson is a 6-foot-1 talent who can play all five positions on both sides of the court.
Jasmine Bascoe, who won bronze with the U19 Women’s National Team at the FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup last summer, will look to bring her national team experience to try to qualify for the next World Cup.
Patricia Augustin, who won tournament MVP at the U17 National Championships last summer, will make her U18 Women’s National Team debut. Other players on this roster who participated in the National Championships last summer include Alex-Anne Bassette, Marie Grace Talle, and Chanté Murray.
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