PARIS, France— Iona University women's basketball alumnae, Juana Camilion '22, '23 MA became the school's first Olympic Medalist on Monday evening, earning a silver medal with her home country of Spain in 3x3 Basketball at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. 
 
Camilion and her teammates Gracia Alonso De Armiño, Vega Gimeno and Sandra Ygueravide represented the 3x3 Spanish National Team for the first time on the Olympic stage at Place de la Concorde in Paris.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The competition began with pool play as all eight teams competed over five days from July 30-August 3. Spain got off to a hot start on day one with an 18-16 win over Azerbaijan in the opener. Camilion contributed four points, four rebounds and two assists in the team's opener. The next day followed with a 17-12 win over hosts, France with Camilion recording one point and a team high five rebounds. 

A tough day three of competition followed with a 14-11 setback to China where Camilion scored a game-high seven points to go with four rebounds. Camilion then scored three points in the 17-11 loss to the United States. 
  
Spain bounced back on Friday, August 2, with a 21-17 victory over Australia as Camilion contributed two points, two rebounds and one assist. The evening ended with a 22-20 overtime victory over Canada to position the team in the driver seat for a top two finish that would secure a spot in the semifinals. 
  
Pool play concluded for Spain with a 18-15 loss to Germany on Saturday, August 3. After the pool play competition there was a four-way tie for second place between Spain, USA, Australia and Canada. Both Spain and the United States remained tied with two wins among the four teams with Spain securing the spot in the semifinals and avoiding the play-in stage bases on a higher points average. 

The semifinals saw Spain match up once again with USA in a back-and-forth battle to kick off the afternoon of semifinal action. As the clock wound down, USA held a one-point lead with :13 seconds to go, Camilion found Ygueravide on a drive to the basket with five seconds left to tie the game at 16-16 and force overtime. Spain recorded the first point of overtime before forcing a USA turnover to get the ball back. Ygueravide clinched the win at the foul line for the 18-16 win.

A matchup in the gold medal game against top seeded Germany awaited in the gold medal game on Monday evening. Spain held a slight two-point advantage at the halfway point of the 10-minute sprint.  Germany would chip back taking advantage of a few turnovers by Spain to take the 17-16 win. Camilion tallied a game-high six points in the silver medal effort and chipped in two rebounds and two assists for Spain.

Camilion totaled 34 points, 25 rebounds and nine assists, helping her team to five wins. Spain averaged 16.4 points per game as a team.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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