The 2023 Battle 4 Atlantis Women's Tournament announced that UA is one of the teams competing in the three-day tournament from Nov. 18-20.
The other teams include DePaul, Michigan, Memphis, Howard University, South Dakota and Middle Tennessee State.
Courtney Blakely — one of the newest Wildcats — will be playing against her former teammates at MTSU. Last season, the 5-foot-8 guard averaged 7.1 points, 3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals per game and shot 42.8% from the floor.
Blakely is among four transfers — Isis Beh, a forward from West Virginia; Sali Kourouma, a forward from Little Rock; and Fanta Gassama, a forward from South Georgia Tech — and four freshmen — No. 8-ranked Montaya Dew (the highest player ever recruited to UA), No. 14 Breya Cunningham, No. 21 Jada Williams and most the most recent addition, four-star Skylar Jones — on the 2023-24 roster so far.
They join four returnees — Helena Pueyo, Esmery Martinez — both fifth-year seniors — and sophomores Maya Nnaji and Kailyn Gilbert.
The last time the Wildcats played a Thanksgiving tournament in the Caribbean, it was in the 2021-22 season. They won the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas by sweeping three from Vanderbilt, DePaul and Rutgers. UA finished that season 21-8.
The entire schedule — non-conference and Pac-12 — will be released in the fall. A few of the non-conference games that will be on the docket include Gonzaga, at home against Texas and at Kansas. The Wildcats are expected to play a home-and-home series with UConn, but it is unknown when that will start.
