Bowie Native a Finalist for Under-19 USA Basketball Team

By Kirsten Petersen

DeMatha High School alumnus and Bowie native Jerami Grant has moved on to the second round of tryouts for the 2013 USA Basketball Men's U19 World Championship Team, according to the Post-Standard.

Grant, a rising sophomore at Syracuse University, was one of 24 college basketball players invited to participate in a training camp from June 14 to June 19 at U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs, CO, according to the newspaper.

The first round of cuts Sunday eliminated 10 contenders for the team. Grant must now beat out four more of the country’s best college basketball players to earn a spot on the 12-member squad, according to SB Nation.

The final roster will be determined by the USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team Committee before the USOTC training camp ends Wednesday, according to SB Nation.

To be eligible for the team, players need to be 19-years-old or younger—born on or after Jan. 1, 1994—and be a U.S. citizen, according to USA Basketball.

During the 2012-2013 season at Syracuse, Grant was a key reserve and part-time starter, averaging 3.9 points and 3.0 rebounds per game as a forward for the basketball team, according to Syracuse University’s student newspaper The Daily Orange.

Last summer, Grant started all five games of the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Sao Sebastiao do Paraiso, Brazil, leading the 2012 USA U18 National Team win gold and qualify for the U19 World Championship, according to the Post-Standard.

At DeMatha, Grant was ranked 11th among power forwards by ESPN 100 and 15th among power forwards by Rivals150.

If Grant makes the squad, he will continue training for the championship close to home with the U19 team at the Washington Wizards practice facility in Washington, DC, the newspaper reported.