Hannah Hidalgo, Justin Pissott Selected for Team USA
What a summer it has been for the state of New Jersey, from the AAU season on. We’ve seen some fantastic performances from different players and great basketball overall. That’s not just in the AAU scene, which if you haven’t…
Access all of Prep Girls Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingWhat a summer it has been for the state of New Jersey, from the AAU season on. We’ve seen some fantastic performances from different players and great basketball overall. That’s not just in the AAU scene, which if you haven’t been following, has been nothing short of fantastic. The national scene has been quite full of New Jersey talent, specifically two superstars who are wearing the red, white and blue.
We begin with Hannah Hidalgo Hannah Hidalgo 5'7" | PG Paul VI | 2023 State NJ , the rising senior who was chosen for the U17 National Team for the upcoming FIBA U17 World Cup.
If you don’t follow South Jersey basketball or haven’t seen us talk about Hidalgo before, she’s the star at Paul VI, averaging over 25 points a game as a junior, one of the standouts across the state without a doubt.
She was our pick for the Olympic Conference Player of the Year and we’ll be keeping track of her to see where she’ll be committing to over the next year.
The U17s haven’t begun their World Cup run yet, currently practicing until early July when they’ll travel to Debrecen, Hungary as they play in Pool D along with Germany, Mali and an unnamed country from Asia.
Pissott, on the other hand, has made it to the Gold Medal Game with the U18 National Team in the FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
Team USA went 3-0 in group play, finishing atop Group B over Colombia, Puerto Rico and El Salvador and advanced through to the final with an 84-40 win over Brazil in the semifinals.
Pissott is a 2022 graduate of Red Bank Catholic, a McDonald’s All-American and a commit to the University of Tennessee for her women’s basketball career.
Her high school season was slightly derailed due to injury, but she’s been training hard this summer and has taken advantage of many opportunities, including this one with Team USA.
Through five games, Pissott is averaging 7.2 points per game, playing 17 minutes a game on average. Her two best games came against Puerto Rico in the group stages and Brazil in the semis.
Against Puerto Rico, she scored 13 points, hauled in seven rebounds and recorded six assists, all tournament-highs for her. Against Brazil, she put up 12 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists. Her +/- combined in those games was +56, very impressive stuff for the incoming college freshman.
Hidalgo has yet to impress in a tournament yet for Team USA, but she’s expected to be just as electric, if not more than what Pissott has done to date.
Congrats to both representatives from the Garden State and hopefully, Team USA can go 2-for-2 in those tournaments this summer.