Miranda Ayim

Miranda Ayim
Free agent
Position Forward
Personal information
Born (1988-05-06) May 6, 1988
Chatham, Ontario
Nationality Canadian
Listed height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Career information
High school Saunders Secondary School
(London, Ontario)
College Pepperdine (2006–2010)
WNBA draft 2010 / Undrafted
Playing career 2011–present
Career history
2011 Tulsa Shock
Stats at NBA.com

Miranda Joy Ayim (born May 6, 1988) is a Canadian female basketball player, who most recently played for the Tulsa Shock of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

High school

Ayim attended high school at Saunders Secondary School in London, Ontario. She was a starter for the varsity each of her four years and help the team to city championships and both are junior and senior years. She was on the honor roll all four years and graduated as the valedictorian of her class.[1]

Pepperdine

Ayim played for the Pepperdine women's basketball team for the four years of her attendance. She set the school record for blocks, with 182 over her four-year career. She scored 1377 points and recorded 735 rebounds, both of which were eighth best in school history. She earned all West Coast Conference as a players three times, as well as All-Academics honors for the conference three times, the first time a Pepperdine women's basketball payer was so honored.[2]

FIBA

Ayim played on several of the Canadian National teams in FIBA competitions. In 2007, she played on the team which participated in the FIBA Under-21 World Championship for Women and finished sixth. Ayim averaged 6.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. She was also on the team which participated in the FIBA Under-19 World Championship for Women, finishing in ninth place. She averaged 9.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.[3]

In 2012, she qualified for the Olympic team, and played for the Canadian National team which finished 8th in the 2012 Summer Olympics.[4] She averaged 1.2 points and 1.2 rebounds per game.[5]

Ayim played on the team representing Canada at the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship for Women. She averaged 8.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, helping the team to a Silver medal at the event.[6] She continued with the team at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women, where she averaged 8.3 points and 5.4 reounds per game.[7]

Pam Am games 2015

Ayim was a member of the Canada women's national basketball team which participated in basketball at the 2015 Pan American Games held in Toronto, Canada July 10 to 26, 2015. Canada opened the preliminary rounds with an easy 101–38 win over Venezuela. The following day they beat Argentina 73–58. The final preliminary game was against Cuba; both teams were 2–0, so the winner would win the group. The game went down to the wire with Canada eking out a 71–68 win.[8] Canada would face Brazil in the semifinal.

Everything seemed to go right in the semifinal game. Canada opened the game with an 11–2 run on seven consecutive points by Ayim. Miah-Marie Langlois contributed five assists. In the third quarter Canada strongly out rebounded Brazil and hit 69% of their field goals to score 33 points in the quarter. Lizanne Murphy and Nirra Fields hit three-pointers to help extend the lead to 68–39 at the end of three quarters. Canada continued to dominate in the fourth quarter with three-pointers by Kia Nurse and Kim Gaucher. Canada went on to win the game 91–63 to earn a spot in the gold-medal game against the USA.[9]

The gold-medal game matched up the host team Canada against USA, in a sold out arena dominated by fans in red and white and waving the Canadian flag. The Canadian team, arm in arm, sang Oh Canada as the respective national anthems were played.

After trading baskets early the US edged out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter. However the Canadians, spurred on by the home crowd cheering, fought back and tied up the game at halftime. In the third quarter, it was Canada's time to shine as they outscore the US 26–15. The lead would reach as high as 18 points. The USA would fight back, but not all the way and Canada won the game and the gold-medal 81–73. It was Canada's first gold-medal in basketball in the Pan Am games. Nurse was the star for Canada with 33 points, hitting 11 of her 12 free-throw attempts in 10 of her 17 field-goal attempts including two of three three-pointers. Ayim contributed four rebounds and six points.[10][11][12][13]

FIBA Americas Women's Championship 2015

Ayim played for Canada at the 2015 FIBA Americas Women's Championship, a qualifying event used to determine invitations to the 2016 Olympics. The games were held in Edmonton, Canada in August, 2015. Canada was assigned to Group A and played Puerto Rico, Chile, the Dominican Republic and Cuba in the preliminary rounds. Canada won the first three games easily with a 94–57 win over Puerto Rico is the closest match. The final preliminary round game was against undefeated Cuba, a team Canada had faced in the Pan Am games. Cuba played well in that event and was expected to challenge Canada. However, Canada defeated Cuba 92–43 to win first place in the group for a spot in the semifinal against the second-place team in group B, Brazil. Ayim scored nine points, second highest on the team.[14]

The semifinal game against Brazil was much closer. Canada led by only six points at halftime but gradually expanded the lead to end up with an 83–66 win, and a spot in the gold-medal game.[15] The gold-medal game was a rematch with Cuba who won their semifinal game against Argentina. Despite the lopsided result in the preliminary rounds, Canada expected a closer game. Cuba started off strong and had an eight-point lead early in the game. Canada responded with a 16–0 run to take over the lead, but Cuba responded and took a small lead early in the second half. Then Canada took the lead back and gradually expanded the lead to end up with the win, 82–66. As the game wound down to the close, the crowd was chanting "Rio","Rio","Rio" in recognition of the fact that the win qualifies Canada for the Olympics in Rio in 2016. Ayim scored eleven points, tied for third highest on the team.[16][17]

WNBA

Ayim was not selected in the 2011 WNBA Draft but was signed to a training camp contract by Tulsa after returning from a year of playing professionally in Turkey.[18]

Professional stats

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
YEAR[3] CLUB GP GS  MPG   FG%   3P%   FT%   RPG  APG SPG BPG PPG
2010-11 Alanya BLD 22 - 31.7 0.484 0.000 0.764 8.1 1.1 1.5 1.9 12.8
2011 Tulsa Shock 3 - 14.0 0.444 0.000 0.000 2.3 0.7 0.7 0.3 2.7
2011-12 Istanbul Uni 16 - 26.4 0.430 0.000 0.520 4.4 0.8 1.2 1.3 9.4
2012-13 Orduspor 27 - 30.7 0.540 0.000 0.790 10.2 1.2 2.2 1.6 18.1
2013-14 Toulouse 23 - 31.3 0.496 0.000 0.877 7.0 0.7 1.3 1.1 14.5

Pepperdine University Stats

Source[3]

YEAR SCHOOL GP GS  MPG   FG%   3P%   FT%   RPG  APG SPG BPG PPG
2006-07 Pepperdine 33 13 19.5 0.500 - 0.661 3.9 0.5 0.6 0.4 6.3
2007-08 Pepperdine 28 28 31.5 0.557 - 0.727 8.7 2.1 0.9 2.0 13.1
2008-09 Pepperdine 28 27 27.9 0.464 0.333 0.765 5.4 0.2 1.5 1.0 11.5
2009-10 Pepperdine 32 32 32.2 0.447 0.192 0.702 6.7 1.1 1.6 2.7 15.0
Totals Pepperdine 121 100 27.6 0.484 0.219 0.712 6.1 0.9 1.2 1.5 11.4

References

  1. "21 MIRANDA AYIM". Pepperdine Sports. Retrieved 29 Jun 2015.
  2. "Meet the Olympians: Miranda Ayim". Pepperdine Magazine. Retrieved 29 Jun 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "MIRANDA AYIM Bio" (PDF). CANADA BASKETBALL. Retrieved 27 Jun 2015.
  4. "London's Miranda Ayim centre of attention for Canada's Olympic basketball team". yorkregion.com. Jul 2, 2012. Retrieved 29 Jun 2015.
  5. "2012 Olympic Women". FIBA. Retrieved 29 Jun 2015.
  6. "2013 FIBA Americas Championship for Women". FIBA. Retrieved 29 Jun 2015.
  7. "9 - Miranda Ayim". FIBA. Retrieved 29 Jun 2015.
  8. "2015 Women's Pan American Games Schedule". USA Basketball. Retrieved 23 Jul 2015.
  9. "WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM TOPS BRAZIL 91-63 TO MOVE ON TO TORONTO 2015 FINAL". CANADA BASKETBALL. Retrieved 23 Jul 2015.
  10. "U.S. Women Collect Silver At Pan American Games After Falling To Host Canada 81-73". USA Basketball. Jul 20, 2015. Retrieved 23 Jul 2015.
  11. "U.S. Women Collect Silver At Pan American Games After Falling To Host Canada 81-73". USA Basketball. Jul 20, 2015. Retrieved 23 Jul 2015.
  12. Caple, Jim. "Battle of UConn Hoops Stars Goes To Canada in Pan Am Final". ESPN. Retrieved 23 Jul 2015.
  13. Smith, Doug (Jul 20, 2015). "Canada wins historic Pan Am women's basketball gold". Toronto Star. Retrieved 23 Jul 2015.
  14. "Schedulae and Results". fibaamericas.com. Retrieved 17 Aug 2015.
  15. "Schedule and Results". fibaamericas.com. Retrieved 17 Aug 2015.
  16. "Schedule and Results". fibaamericas.com. Retrieved 17 Aug 2015.
  17. "Canada is the 2015 FIBA Americas Women's Champion!". fibaamericas.com. August 16, 2015. Retrieved 17 Aug 2015.
  18. http://www.wnba.com draft2011/draft_board.html 2011 WNBA Draft board
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