Mariah Perez will play for Puerto Rico in Olympics after five seasons with Dayton Flyers

Mariah Perez, who played for the Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team the last five seasons, will represent Puerto Rico at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, UD announced Wednesday.

Perez was one of 15 players trying out for 13 spots on the team in June, according to a report by El Nuevo Dia. The team was finalized on July 8 when Puerto Rico held a parade of athletes through San Juan.

Puerto Rico has 51 Olympians in all, many from the men’s and women’s basketball teams, which both qualified. The women’s team qualified for the Olympics for the second time. It also played in the previous Olympics in China.

The team plays Serbia on July 28 in its first game in group play and then plays Spain on July 30 and China on Aug. 3.

Puerto Rico played practice games this week against Germany and Portugal in Poland and will play Canada on Thursday and Saturday in Spain. It will play Nigeria in a final warm-up game July 24.

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Perez, a 6-foot-3 forward from Newark, N.J., ranked third in Dayton history with 131 appearances in her career. She played five seasons because the 2020-21 season, played during the pandemic, didn’t count against anyone’s eligibility.

Perez scored 715 points in her career. She averaged a career-best 11.9 points in the 2022-23 season and 6.9 points last season.

In June, Perez was the first player taken in the Puerto Rico women’s basketball league draft. She tried out for Puerto Rico’s U-16 and U-17 teams when she was in high school.

Congrats to former Flyer Mariah Perez on earning on a spot on the Puerto Rico Women's National Team for the Olympics. Good luck in Paris! #UDWBB // #GoFlyers https://t.co/fbPvzTidq3
— Dayton Women's Basketball (@DaytonWBB) July 17, 2024