Canada Basketball – TORONTO, ON (March 15, 2018) – When the 2018 Division 1 Women’s Basketball Championship tips-off Friday afternoon, 17 Canadians will find themselves vying for college basketball’s top prize. 

At 32-0, Kia Nurse and the UConn Huskies enter the tournament as the first overall seed as they chase their fifth national championship in six years.  On Monday, the Hamilton, Ont. native earned Academic All-American honours for the second straight season and last month became the first Canadian to be nominated for the Nancy Lieberman award, which is given to the top point guard of women’s college basketball.

While Nurse’s collegiate career will come to a close this year, several standout Canadians are just getting started, including Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Shaina Pellington.  After helping Canada secure a historic bronze medal at the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2017 last summer, Pellington became the Sooners’ seventh Big 12 Freshman of the Year winner after averaging 13.1 points per game.

NC State rookie Aislinn Konig also made a name for herself this season, appearing in all 32 games for the Wolfpack and finished third on the team in scoring, averaging 10.3 points per game.  No. 4 seed NC State opens the tournament on Friday at 2:30 PM ET versus No. 13 Elon.

Starting 27 games for the Wolverines this season, Michigan rookie Hailey Brown was another Canadian who turned some heads after averaging 9.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

Below is the list of Canadians playing this year:

Hanna Hall – Buffalo

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Hanna Hall	24	8.0	.317	.737	.294	0.3	0.7	1.2	0.2	0.0	1.9

Ayoleka Sodade – Buffalo

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Ayoleka Sodade	19	4.9	.357	.667	–	0.3	1.0	0.4	0.3	0.0	0.8

Kia Nurse – Connecticut

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Kia Nurse	32	32.5	.524	.813	.455	0.7	3.3	2.8	1.4	0.4	13.8

Louise Forsyth – Gonzaga

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Louise Forsyth	13	3.0	.273	1.000	.250	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.8

Emma Wolfram – Gonzaga

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Emma Wolfram	1	0.0	–	–	–	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

Yasmine Bidikuindila – LSU

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Yasmine Bidikuindila	16	6.3	.700	.333	–	0.5	1.4	0.1	0.4	0.3	0.9

Julie Brosseau – Maine

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Julie Brosseau	31	27.3	.375	.778	.354	0.5	3.2	2.2	0.7	0.1	11.4

Shantelle Valentine – Marquette

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Shantelle Valentine	20	6.9	.421	.500	–	0.6	1.5	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.9

Hailey Brown – Michigan

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Hailey Brown	27	25.0	.460	.653	.459	1.6	5.2	1.3	0.6	0.7	9.0

Aislinn Konig – NC State

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Aislinn Konig	32	33.8	.358	.550	.345	0.1	2.4	3.1	0.9	0.3	10.3

Shaina Pellington – Oklahoma

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Shaina Pellington	30	27.1	.491	.588	.000	0.9	2.7	2.2	0.9	0.1	13.1

Sarah Shewan – Quinnipiac

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Sarah Shewan	6	21.5	.367	.926	.355	2.0	6.2	1.5	0.8	1.2	13.3

Alyssa Jerome – Stanford

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Alyssa Jerome	31	10.4	.382	.667	.267	0.4	1.2	0.4	0.0	0.1	2.1

Mikaela Brewer – Stanford

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Mikaela Brewer	14	1.9	.154	–	.111	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.4

Chelayne Bailey – Syracuse

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Chelayne Bailey	25	5.7	.261	.600	.375	0.1	0.4	0.8	0.2	0.0	0.7

Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau – Texas

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau	23	21.1	.478	.667	.292	1.8	5.0	0.7	1.0	1.6	6.0

Khaleann Caron-Goudreau – Texas

Player	G	MPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	ORPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Khaleann Caron-Goudreau	16	6.8	.111	.750	.100	0.4	1.4	0.4	0.1	0.3	0.5

While a member of a tournament bound team, Canadians Julia Chandler (Dayton) will not play this year due to NCAA rules after transferring.

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Matt Walker, mwalker@basketball.ca