Incoming Freshman Milena Bajic Competing With National Team in Eurobasket Tournament
MEMPHIS – One of the members of the 2015-16 Memphis women’s basketball team has Olympic dreams. Incoming freshman forward Milena Bajic is currently practicing with the Montenegro women’s basketball team for competition in the Eurobasket Women’s Championships that begins Thursday in Romania. Bajic is currently the youngest player on the 12-player Montenegro women’s squad.
Montenegro is competing in the A pool of the Eurobasket 2015 championships after finishing as quarterfinalists in 2011 in their debut in the EuroBasket tournament and advancing to the second round in 2013. The 2015 EuroBasket first round group play consists of four pools of five teams each.
Montenegro will face the Czech Republic, Thursday; Romania, Friday; Ukraine, Sunday and France on Monday. Three teams from each pool advance to second round group play, June 17-22nd. There are two groups of six in second round play, and the top four teams from each group play in the final phase, beginning with the quarterfinal rounds June 24th and 25th. The championship final will be played June 28th. The champion of the EuroBasket tournament will be one of 12 women’s basketball teams that qualifies for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The teams that finish second through fifth at the EuroBasket tournament will qualify for the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament, June 13-16 of 2016. The top six teams from that tournament also qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Team USA and host Brazil are already in the 2016 Olympic tournament field, leaving 10 spots remaining.
Bajic will become the third Memphis women’s basketball player to represent her native country while serving as a member of a Melissa McFerrin-coached team. Rising sophomore forward Cheyenne Creighton played for Canada’s U18 squad last summer in the FIBA Americas U18 Championships.
Former Tiger Ramses Lonlack is in camp for a third straight stint with Cameroon’s national women’s team in preparation for the 2015 Afrobasket tournament. Lonlack represented her native Cameroon in 2011 in the Francophone Games in Nice, France. She also played for Cameroon in 2013 in the Afrobasket tournament in Mali, but this year, the tournament will be hosted in Cameroon. The Afrobasket tournament will be conducted September 24-October 3 this fall.
Bajic is one of four Tiger newcomers for the upcoming 2015-16 season. She will be joined by a pair of junior college transfers and Bajic and post Brianna Porter (Nashville/University School) will make up this fall’s freshman class as Melissa McFerrin heads in to her eighth season at the helm of the Memphis women’s basketball program.
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