Syracuse women’s basketball: Orange alum Brittney Sykes named to USA 3×3 roster for AmeriCup

Sykes will serve a key role in helping Team USA defend its gold medal.

Former Syracuse Orange women’s basketball guard Brittney Sykes is heading off to Puerto Rico to represent the United States at the 2024 FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup.

Sykes earned a spot on the 2024 USA Basketball 3×3 AmeriCup Team, the program announced. Along with her other teammates, Sykes will play a key role for Team USA as it looks to defend its recent title from last year.

Sykes played 138 career games for the Orange between 2013 and 2017, starting in all but one. She emerged as a go-to scorer (16.6 PPG in 2014) by her second season, but a pair of ACL tears led her to miss pretty much all of 2015. After a lengthy recovery process, Sykes had a breakout year in 2017, earning a spot on the All-ACC first team and ACC All-Defensive team and averaging career-highs in points (19.2), rebounds (7.8), assists (3.3) and steals (2.2)

She ended up averaging 13.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.9 steals per game during her time with the Orange.

Sykes would end up being selected No. 7 overall in the 2017 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream, becoming the highest-drafted Syracuse women’s basketball player in team history to this day.

In her tenure in the WNBA, Sykes emerged as one of the most notable defensive players in the league after making the All-Rookie Team in 2017. Prior to the 2024 season, she made four straight All-Defensive teams (first-team in 2021 and 2023; second-team in 2020 and 2022) and led the league in steals in back-to-back years. She also previously finished top-three in Defensive Player of the Year voting twice since 2021.

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

So far, Sykes has played eight years in the WNBA — three with Atlanta, three with the Los Angeles Sparks and two with the Washington Mystics. She’s averaging 12.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals in 240 career games.

In September, Sykes announced she would be playing in the inaugural of Unrivaled — a 3×3 women’s basketball league created by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.

Sykes will be playing in the 2024 AmeriCup alongside Abbey Hsu, Maddy Siegrist and Azura Stevens.

Team USA will play the Dominican Republic and Uruguay on Saturday. The best two teams from each three-team pool advanced to the quarterfinals on Sunday. The full women’s AmeriCup calendar can be seen here and all games will stream live here.

We wish Sykes and the rest of the 3×3 team the best of luck as they try to secure gold once again.