Two Notre Dame representatives named to Canadian women’s basketball Olympic team

In mid-June, USA Basketball announced its 12-player women’s basketball team for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, France. Two former Notre Dame players made the cut in Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young.

Two more Fighting Irish women’s basketball players are on their way to The City of Light.

Tuesday, Team Canada announced its 12-player roster. Current Notre Dame combo guard Cassandre Prosper and former Fighting Irish forward Natalie Achonwa will suit up for their native country overseas. Prosper hails from Montreal, Quebec, while Achonwa is from Toronto, Ontario.

Achonwa, who last played for Notre Dame in 2013-14, is Team Canada’s first four-time Olympian in women’s basketball. She’s competed in every Olympic Games since 2012, a decade-plus journey that took her to London, Rio de Janeiro and now Paris. Prosper, meanwhile, is just a junior by eligibility terms in South Bend. She would be a sophomore if she did not enroll early and play in 22 games for the Irish in the second half of the 2022-23 season.

Achonwa only started one game for the Irish in her first two seasons, but she broke out in her junior campaign and was one of the team’s most important players in the second half of her career. As a senior, she posted career-highs with 14.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. She held a career-long field goal percentage of 56.2, placing her eighth in Irish history in that category. Her 970 career rebounds are fifth all-time in Notre Dame history.

It all led to the No. 9 overall pick in the WNBA Draft. Achonwa played eight seasons as a pro, last appearing in a WNBA game for the Minnesota Lynx in 2022. She spent the first six seasons of her career with the team who drafted her, the Indiana Fever. The 31-year-old started 98 of the 211 games she appeared in and averaged 7.1 points and 4.2 rebounds in 17.8 minutes per game.

Prosper only played in five games for Notre Dame in 2023-24 before going down with a lower-body injury that kept her out for the remainder of the season. She has played in 27 games for the Irish with three starts and has averaged 5.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game.

Even after Notre Dame added two forwards from the transfer portal in Liza Karlen of Marquette and Liatu King of Pittsburgh, Prosper figures to be an important role player for head coach Niele Ivey in the upcoming season. She provides defensive energy and length with her 6-2 frame that Ivey can’t get from everybody on the roster.

The women’s basketball group stage in Paris begins on July 28. The quarterfinals, semifinals and gold medal matches are on Aug. 7, 9 and 11, respectively.