Centralight

Sports • cmuchippewas.com Earning her (stars and) stripes By Scott Rex Crystal Bradford thought she had made it. After being named the Mid-American Conference's West Division Player of the Week early in her collegiate career, she says, "I remember calling my mom and telling her, 'Mom, I just won MAC West Player of the Week.' I thought that was the biggest thing." But Bradford's personal trophy case now features a brand-new, gleaming "biggest thing" – a World University Games gold medal. Bradford, who begins her junior year at CMU this fall, was one of 12 elite college players who represented the United States at the World University Games in Russia in July. She was selected from a pool of 32 players who were invited to a three-day tryout in Colorado Springs in May, becoming the first active CMU basketball player to compete in a major international competition. (Dan Majerle had just completed his collegiate eligibility when he won a bronze medal with Team USA at the 1988 Summer Olympics.) This summer Team USA was dominant, winning its first four games by an average of 47 points before Bradford keyed a onepoint win over Australia in the tournament semifinals. Bradford scored the Americans' final three points, including the gamewinning basket with 14 seconds left, in the 79-78 semifinal victory. She then tallied a tournament-high 16 points in just 11 minutes of action in a 90-71 win over Russia in the gold-medal game. Bradford averaged 10.8 points, on 60.4 percent shooting, and 4.7 rebounds per game during the six-game tournament. Her international performance came on the heels of a sensational sophomore season at CMU in which she was named to the All-MAC first team, was selected the MAC Tournament Most Valuable Player after leading the Chippewas to the tournament championship and posted a 36-point, 14-rebound, seven-assist effort in a five-point loss to Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament. Bradford was one of five players on the roster representing the USA for the first time in her career, but the newcomers to international competition never lost sight of the significance of whom they were representing. "It was an honor to represent the USA," Bradford says. "I always play for the letters on my chest, whether that's CMU or USA, but this was so much bigger than me. It was a humbling experience to represent the USA and know that we brought home the gold for our whole country." • centralight fall '13 19 19

• Cover