Ezell Talks About Jones Cup Trip

AMES, Iowa - Iowa State junior guard Heather Ezell has been selected to play for the 2007 U.S. Jones Cup Team. The team has been in Taipei, Taiwan, since July 11 and will remain there through July 17. This is the second diary Ezell has written since she joined the team for training camp. She will continue to write diaries for cyclones.com. Check back to keep up with Ezell's progress throughout the tournament.

Hello from Taipai, Taiwan!

It's been a long week with traveling and playing. We arrived in Taipai on Monday around 5 p.m., which was 4 a.m. back home. Everyone was very tired but they made us stay up until about 8 so we could try and get our sleep patterns right.

The plane ride over here was almost 13 hours. The night before we left I decided it would be a good idea to stay up all night and then just sleep on the plane. Well, the staying up all night worked but the sleeping on a plane fell through. I stayed awake for 12 out of the 13 hours, so lets just say I was very tired when we got to Taiwan.

Once we got to Taipai we had an hour bus ride to our hotel, the city is huge! I was so surprised by all the tall buildings, but more surprised by all the "project" like apartments and areas. It was sad to see that many homes looking the way they did. The tallest building in the world, the Taipai 101, is really close to our hotel. We have a day off on Sunday which we will spend sightseeing and actually go up in it and then go to the Zoo and a few other places.

Now onto the basketball tournament. We played the Chinese Taipai team first, which is their national team. We ended up losing by only a few (70-63) to them, but we should have won. Everyone had a little trouble adjusting to the style of play over here. For example, you can practically do anything but tackle the other team and it is not a foul. I got to play quite a bit at both the point and wing but didn't get a lot of shots up. I ended the game with 3 points and 4 assists.

Next we played the Australian team, which featured 11 of their 20 Olympic players. Unfortunately, we got blown out in the second half and ended up losing by 30 (70-40), which is the closest game they have played so far :)! During a free throw, I asked one of the girls where she was from and then asked her if she knew Alison Lacey. Sorry Alison, she didn't have a clue. I played about the same as the first game, ending with 4 points and 5 assists.

Our next game was against the Japanese team, which featured no one over 6 feet tall. We won this game by about 40 (114-72). It was nice to finally get a win under our belts. We dominated the Japanese team in the paint. Jackie McFarland, from Colorado, ended the game with 22 points and 9 rebounds. I ended the game with 9 points and 7 assists. The Japanese team was very nice, and we hung out with them after the game for almost 20 minutes outside the locker rooms. I learned how to say hello, what's up, and thank you in Japanese.

Well it is now Saturday in Taipai and we have a game this afternoon against Korea. Then we have a day off on Sunday and we will play 2 more games on Monday and Tuesday. I will be sending out another blog shortly and I apologize for this one coming a few days late. The internet is a little different over here and I just figured out how to use it! Thanks for reading! Have a great day and Go Cyclones!!

Heather Ezell