Chiney And Bria Are Friends For Life

Stanford junior Chiney Ogwumike and UConn junior Bria Hartley were teammates this summer on the USA Basketball 3×3 team that won gold at the FIBA World Championship in Greece.

But they were friends long before.

“Bria Hartley is one of my closest friends in life,” Ogwumike said. “We met in each other in AAU circuit. We were rivals, but friendly rivals. We talked about who was recruiting us, like girls tend to do. We discussed even playing together. But we both had different interests.

“We had so much fun playing this summer with Skylar Diggins and Ann Strother [on the 3x3 team]. It was a great experience that neither of us saw coming. Our friendship is what allowed us to pursue it together.

“We had this term we used about our friendly rivalry ‘”Frienemies” is what we called each other. And that’s the way it will be [Saturday].”