
Mireia Jurado and Sumayah Sugapong suited up for their national teams over the weekend
Freshman Mireia Jurado and junior Sumayah Sugapong will be teammates on Becky Burke’s first Arizona women’s basketball team in just a few months. The two guards were on different continents playing for their national teams in FIBA events this weekend. Their results were as different as the locales.
Jurado and Spain wrapped up the FIBA 2025 U18 Women’s EuroBasket in the medal round on Saturday and Sunday. They walked out with a gold medal after defeating France 71-65 in the semifinals and upstart Finland 81-72 in the finals.
Jurado averaged almost 20 minutes per game in the first five games of the tournament, but played just two against France and five against Finland in the medal rounds.
Jurado didn’t score against France. Her only stat was going 0 for 1 from the floor. In the gold medal game against Finland, she had four points on 2-for-2 shooting.
Shooting was a struggle for Jurado throughout the seven-game tournament. She went 6 for 18 from inside the arc and 3 for 20 from outside. Overall, she shot 23.7 percent from the floor.
She was very effective from the line, though. Jurado hit 10 of 12 foul shots for an 83.3 percent accuracy.
Jurado also found other ways to help her team when her shots weren’t falling. She averaged 3.1 rebounds per game. She grabbed all of those in the first five games, working out to 4.4 rpg in games where she played more than five minutes.
Her eight assists also game in the first five games. She averaged 1.1 assists per game for the entire tournament. In the games where she played more than five minutes, she dished out 1.6 apg.
Her three steals came to 0.4 spg for the tournament and 0.6 spg in the first five games when she played more.
As for negative stats, Jurado had 12 personal fouls, all coming in the first five games. That came out to 1.7 fouls per game for the tournament and 2.4 per game in the games she played significant time. She averaged 0.9 turnovers per game over seven games and 1.2 in the games where she got significant playing time.
Spain was the favorite headed into the tournament and had the added benefit of being on its home turf. The girls’ program is ranked second in the world behind only the U.S. In the medal rounds, they faced the No. 5 team (France) and the No. 10 team (Finland).
Sugapong is playing for the Philippines senior national team in the Women’s Asia Cup. Her experience in Shenzhen has been very different.
The Gilas Women, as the Philippines’ senior national team is known, went into the weekend’s group stage ranked 44th in the world in women’s basketball. Their first opponent was Australia, which is ranked second in the women’s category.
Playing with the Gilas Women may prepare Sugapong for her first year as a Wildcat. Many members of the team, including the junior transfer from UC San Diego, are making their debuts at this level. The players not only have to get used to playing with each other, but they’re playing against some extremely talented teams who have more experience.
“We’re gonna be playing a lot of really good girls, but I have a lot of confidence in our group,” Sugapong told FIBA. “We’re pretty young, but we all want to be here and play hard with a lot of passion.”
While the optimism is understandable, the results were as expected. The Opals won 115-39.
Sugapong went 1 for 7 from the field for a 14. 3 shooting percentage. That included a 0-of-4 night from 3-point distance. She grabbed one steal and had five turnovers to go with one personal foul.
The Philippines will face Japan as group play continues on Monday, July 14. Games can be viewed on Courtside 1891 with a subscription. Subscriptions can be purchased for an entire year or on a per-event basis.