Ivana Raca

Ivana Raca
Personal information
Born	September 10, 1999 (age 22); Larnaca, Cyprus
Nationality	Serbian
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Career information
High school	1st Lyceum of Voula (Belgrade, Serbia)
College	Wake Forest (2017–2021)
WNBA draft	2021 / Round: 3 / Pick: 28th overall
	Selected by the Los Angeles Sparks
Position	Forward
Career history
2015-2017	Proteas Voulas
2021-2022	Geas Basket
Women’s basketball
Representing the Serbia
U18 European Championship

Ivana Raca (born September 10, 1999) is a Serbian basketball player, now play in Geas Basket of the Lega Basket in Italy^[1] and plays for the senior national team of Serbia. It is 1.88m high (6'03 '') and plays in the position of wing and wing center. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in psychology. He currently plays for Allianz Geas Sesto (Milan - Italy) A1 league. In 2021, Ivana was drafted in the WNBA as the 28th pick from Los Angeles - Sparks.^[2]

Ivana is one of the most talented and promising young players in Europe. She proved this at the last European Under-20 Basketball Championships in Shapron, Hungary, in 2018, where she was named a member of the All-Star Five, and was chosen by the audience as the best player (MVP) of the European Championship. championships. She won two silver medals with the national team of Serbia (junior national team under 18 and junior national team under 20). ^[3]

College[]

In 2017 Raca joined to the Wake Forest University.^[4]

Wake Forest statistics[]

Source^[5]^[6]

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	Team	GP	Points	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2017-18	Wake Forest	31	143	43.0%	32.6%	72.0%	2.6	1.0	0.5	0.3	4.6
2018-19	Wake Forest	30	373	37.6%	27.6%	77.9%	6.4	1.9	1.2	0.5	12.4
2019-20	Wake Forest	32	547	40.3%	31.3%	74.5%	6.8	1.7	1.1	0.4	17.1
2020-21	Wake Forest	25	417	41.6%	28.4%	80.0%	9.0	1.7	1.0	0.7	16.7
Career		118	1,480	40.2%	30.4%	79.3%	6.1	1.6	0.9	0.5	12.5

Career[]

Born in Cyprus, Ivana started playing basketball in 2009 at the AEL club from Limassol (junior team). From 2010 to 2012, she played in the following clubs: AEL from Limassol (junior team) and Proteas da Noi AEL Limassol. As a very young woman, she played for the younger basketball team of Cyprus. She continued her playing career in the junior team of PAOK from Thessaloniki (AS PAOK Thesalonikis), where she played from 2012 to 2015. As a member of the junior team and senior team PAOKA (PAOK Thesalonikis - Greece A1), she played in the 2013-14 season. and 2014-15. She played for the Proteas Vulas team from Athens (Proteas Vulas) from 2015 to 2017. In the jersey of this team, she achieved incredible success in the quadruple-double - 22 points, 21 rebounds, 11 assists and 10 stolen balls, and brought the cup to her team in the (ESKANA) Cup of Greece. In Greece, she won all the national championships in the junior category. Twice she was in the Top - 5. Twice she participated in the school world championships in Limoges, France (2015) and Porec, Croatia (2017) as the team captain, where she won a silver medal and was in the top five of the championship. Since 2017, he has been playing for the Wake Forrest University basketball team^[7] at the University of North Carolina, USA. In 2017, she played in the jersey of the Serbian junior national team at the European Under-18 Basketball Championship (2017 FIBA U18 Women's European Championship - Division A). The following 2018, she won a silver medal (2018 FIBA U20 Women's European Championship) with the junior national team of Serbia (under 20) in Sopron, Hungary.^[8] Ivana plays for the senior national team of Serbia. Raca was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in the third round of the 2021 WNBA draft.^[9] In June 2021 Raca signed to Italian Geas Basket.^[10]

Serbian representation[]

She played for all the younger selections of the Serbian national team, and is currently in the senior team of the national team. With the national team under 18, she won a silver medal at the 2017 World Championships in Sopron, Hungary. (2017 FIBA U18 Women's European Championship - Division A). At the European Championship in Sopron for players under 20 with the national team of Serbia (2018 FIBA U20 Women's European Championship), they won the silver medal again, in 2018. Ivana hit one of the most important shots, perhaps the key one in winning a medal - a three-pointer in the overtime match against the Italian national team. In the game against Slovakia, in the eighth finals, she scored 36 points, four threes, no misses, had ten rebounds - index 43. At the championship she was named a member of the ideal five (All-Star Five), and by the audience was chosen as the best player (MVP) of the European Championship.

Family[]

Ivana comes from a basketball family. Father Dragan Raca is a former Serbian basketball player and a famous basketball coach who built his career (in Cyprus, Greece and China). He was the selector of the basketball national teams of Lebanon, Cyprus and Macedonia. He achieves notable coaching achievements today in China, where he has been engaged since 2010. Today, he heads the Beikong Fly Dragons basketball club, a member of the Chinese CBA League, as a coach, head coach and general supervisor. For his long-term work in the field of basketball, he was promoted to Honorary Doctor of Science "Alpha BC University".

Branka Raca's mother is a former basketball player and coach who built her career in Serbia and Cyprus. She was her first coach. Ivana's sister, Tijana Raca (October 28, 1997), is also a well-known basketball player and member of the Cyprus national team who played for the Wyoming University team.