Notre Dame women’s basketball veteran to play for Team USA in FIBA 3X3 tournament
Notre Dame women’s basketball has had a long, proud history of program representation for USA Basketball at various international tournaments. Add junior forward Maddy Westbeld to the list.
Westbeld began training camp today for the 2022 FIBA 3×3 U23 National League, a tournament that will take place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from Aug. 13-19. Westbeld is one of six players on USA’s women’s team.
The full USA Basketball women’s roster is below.
| Player | Age | School |
| Aaliyah Moore | 19 | Texas |
| Maddy Siegrist | 22 | Villanova |
| Celeste Taylor | 21 | Duke |
| Alyssa Utsby | 20 | North Carolina |
| Kayla Wells | 23 | Texas A&M |
| Maddy Westbeld | 20 | Notre Dame |
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Westbeld was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2020-21. She averaged 15.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Those numbers came down to 11.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game as a sophomore this past season. She struggled learning to adjust to a new role with freshman point guard Olivia Miles and Stanford transfer center Maya Dodson being the No. 1 and No. 2 options on offense.
Westbeld showed flashes of who she was as a freshman during Notre Dame’s stretch run, though. She scored at least 13 points in all of the Irish’s postseason games, including 19 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against UMass. She scored at least 20 points in three of Notre Dame’s 33 games.
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Westbeld is a career 47.7 percent shooter from the field and 35.3 percent from three-point range. At 6-foot-3, she has shooting touch that would be of value in a spacious 3×3 setting. She can also provide post presence as a defender. She has 47 blocks in her career, nearly one per all 53 games she has played.
Last summer, sophomore Sonia Citron helped the USA win a gold medal in the U19 2021 FIBA World Cup. Citron also competed for the USA and won a gold medal on the U16 team in 2019. Miles was her teammate, as was true freshman All-American KK Bransford. Bransford also won a gold medal at the 2019 FIBA Americas.
Stanford transfer Jenna Brown led the U18 USA team to gold at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico City in 2018. Brown won a bronze medal with USA at the FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain in 2016.
Junior forward Natalija Marshall participated in the 2018 USA Women’s U17 World Cup Team Trials. Oregon transfer Kylee Watson competed for the USA in the 2021 3×3 Nations League, the same even Westbeld is partaking in this summer. She was also a member of the U16 National Team in 2017.
At a place like Notre Dame, international playing experience is hardly foreign territory. It’s almost a prerequisite.
