A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum will miss the FIBA Women's World Cup for health reasons and will be replaced by Washington teammates Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron, USA Basketball announced Monday.
Wilson, the four-time WNBA MVP, has shouldered quite a workload in the first part of the season for the Las Vegas Aces and needed a break to rest and get ready for the playoffs. She was voted the most outstanding player of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2022 World Cup. She will be sorely missed by the United States.
Plum has been dealing with a calf injury for most of the WNBA season and it still hasn't 100% healed. She was a catalyst in the Paris Games gold-medal contest against France and sparked the Americans to the one-point victory.
In a statement posted Monday to Instagram, Plum said: “I did everything I could to be back on the court, but just ran out of time. After careful consideration and conversations with my family, team doctors, coaching staff, and front office, the decision has been made to shut it down through (the) remainder of the season and focus on getting my body back to 100% ... This is not an easy decision as I love to compete, but I know it’s the right one for the long term.”
Iriafen and Citron were both part of U.S. camps this past winter. Iriafen played on the American team that went to Puerto Rico and won the World Cup qualifier. Citron had to miss that tournament because of an injury, so she'll be making her national team debut in Germany.
The Americans have won every World Cup since finishing with the bronze medal in 2006. That World Cup saw American star Lisa Leslie pull out at the last minute because of a car accident that her uncle was in. Without her, the U.S. fell to Russia in the semifinals.
Without the two veteran players, the U.S. will rely even more heavily on its youth movement. Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers will make their World Cup debut. The young stars will be joined by Olympic medalists Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kahleah Copper.
Rhyne Howard and Aliyah Boston will also be making their World Cup debuts to round out the team.
The U.S. opens against China on Friday. The Chinese team has a huge front line with 7-foot-3 Zhang Ziyu, 6-10 Han Xu and 6-7 Li Yueru. The two teams played for the World Cup title in 2022 in Australia.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron (22) tries to drive past Phoenix Mercury guard-forward Kahleah Copper during the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics forward Kiki Iriafen, left, drives past Phoenix Mercury forwards Alyssa Thomas (25) and Maddy Westbeld (21) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson (22) shoots over Toronto Tempo guard Ornella Bankole (33) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
ISTANBUL (AP) — Survivors of a ferry disaster off the coast of northern Cyprus that killed at least eight people described on Monday the moments of terror as they scrambled to escape the sinking vessel.
The passengers spoke as rescue teams searched for 20 people missing since the ship carrying 267 passengers and crew capsized after leaving Kyrenia, a port in breakaway northern Cyprus, for Tasucu in Turkey on Sunday afternoon. Authorities had earlier said 18 were missing.
Among those unaccounted for were a 12-year-old girl and her brother, 6. “My daughter slipped from my grasp. She was holding my hand. The suitcase fell, she slipped from my hand,” their mother, Ayten Bicer, 35, told Turkey's DHA news agency.
Serkan Kunduraci, who escaped the sinking ferry by hauling himself through a broken window, said he saw children and others drowning in the sea some 7.5 kilometers (4.6 miles) off the Cypriot coast.
“I saw some who didn’t know how to swim die in the sea,” he told DHA. “There were those who, in a panic, didn’t grab life jackets. Some jumped (into the sea) immediately out of fear. There was an old man, we couldn’t get him. We tried to pull him up, but we couldn’t. He drowned, too.
“We saw and witnessed a family’s children, boys and girls, very young children, drowning.”
Survivors told how the ship, the Filo Jet, began listing and taking on water after they heard a number of loud noises from below decks.
“The crew came, took a look and told us there wasn’t a major problem, just a loose gasket causing a leak,” Kunduraci said.
When the order to evacuate came, he added, people were already panicking. He said the ship began tilting as the captain apparently made an effort to return to Kyrenia, known as Girne in Turkish.
“There was so much screaming and so many people were trapped behind — they had been left in the rear,” Kunduraci said. “They couldn’t get out. There were bodies and people piled on top of them. Those trapped underneath were the unlucky ones, they stayed down there.”
Deniz Ozpolat also recalled the sense of panic onboard the ferry, which was owned by Filo Denizcilik.
“We headed toward the exit. A crush of people had already formed. We couldn’t find the life jackets. They shut the doors on us and we couldn’t get out,” he told DHA.
“They opened them later. We jumped into the water. The ship began to sink after listing to the side. We broke the windows and rescued people. There was a family out in the open water, there were children.”
Rescuer Muhammed Ozcelik, who runs a water sports company, said his boat was one of the first on the scene and began hauling people from the sea.
“We tried to do more than we could. People were saying, ‘Take me too, take me too,’ but the capacity was full. We even took far more than (our capacity) … People were fighting for their lives.”
Images in the Turkish media showed passengers in orange life vests standing on the upturned ferry as they waited for rescue. Many were later shown disembarking small pleasure boats at a port.
The ferry’s eight crew and a Filo Denizcilik company director appeared in a northern Cypriot court to face charges of causing death through negligence and carelessness Monday, the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Kibris reported. They were detained for a further three days.
Unal Ustel, the prime minister of northern Cyprus, said late Sunday that "even the slightest negligence will be uncovered. Whoever is found to be at fault or responsible will not be spared.”
On Monday, he identified all the dead and missing. The port authorities who authorized the Filo Jet's voyage had been dismissed, Ustel added, as the Transport Ministry said all Filo Denizcilik operations had been suspended.
The Turkish coast guard and military were assisting rescue teams from north Cyprus, Ustel added, describing the incident as the worst maritime disaster in Cypriot history.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot Transport Minister Erhan Arikli said in a statement that the ferry had been sailing at 60% capacity and there were enough life vests for all passengers.
An inspection of the submerged ferry was hampered by the sea depth of 500 meters (1,640 feet), he added, but a remotely operated submarine would be used to search for bodies. It is expected to arrive at the site from Turkey on Tuesday.
Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974, and Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983. Only Turkey recognizes the north, where it maintains more than 35,000 troops.
In this frame grab from video, rescued passengers wearing life jackets are evacuated by boat after a passenger vessel capsized off the coast of Girne, in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (DHA via AP)
In this frame grab from a video, passengers wearing life jackets wait atop a capsized passenger vessel to be rescued off the coast of Girne, in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. (DHA via AP)
