Girls’ basketball: Full Speed ahead for USA U18 team

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Nikki Speed, who helped her team win four Southern Section titles while at Marlborough, has been named to the USA Basketball U18 National team.

Speed was one of 12 players selected from among 35 who participated in the three-day tryout.

Speed, a guard who will attend Rutgers in the fall, was the only Southland player chosen. In fact, she is one of only three players who played west of Tulsa, Okla. The others were Ashley Corral of Vancouver (Wash.) Prairie and Joslyn Tinkle of Missoula (Mont.) Big Sky. Corral, by the way, will attend USC.

Among those who didn’t make the squad were Jasmine Dixon, who was The Times’ and the state player of the year, and junior Monique Oliver of Long Beach Poly.

-- Martin Henderson