Aug. 9, 2007

FAIRFAX, Va. - Former George Mason women's basketball player Julie Flanders has once again been selected to compete for her native Virgin Islands national team in the 2007 Caribbean Basketball Championships. The event will be held in Morovis, Puerto Rico from August 10-14.

Flanders, a four-year member of the Patriots from 2001-2005, is one of the veteran players on the Virgin Islands squad, and will look to continue her excellent play at the center position. Last year, Flanders helped lead the Virgin Islands to the silver medal in the CBC tourney, held in Jamaica.

In her senior year at Mason, Flanders was a dominant force in the paint, starting all 26 games during the 2004-05 campaign. Flanders averaged 8.3 rebounds per game to lead the Patriots, and averaged 6.8 points in 30.1 minutes each game. In a road contest at Penn State on December 2 that year, Flanders grabbed 16 rebounds, the most for any Patriot player that season.

The Virgin Islands have been placed in Group A with Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. Group B will have Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana and Puerto Rico. The top two teams from each group will advance to the medal round.

There will be four games on each of the five days of competition, including the gold medal and bronze medal games on the final day. Last year, Flanders' Virgin Islands team fell to Jamaica in the gold medal game.

Log on to http://www.fibaamericas.com/torneos1_us.asp?t=JITDWWICWI or http://www.latinbasket.com/ISV/ISV.asp?women=1 to follow the progress of the team.