Valkyries bring back Chen and Bibby as EuroBasket hits roster

The Valkyries signed third-round draft pick Kaitlyn Chen and forward Chloe Bibby to their roster on Sunday as starting center Temi F gb nl is expected to leave to participate in EuroBasket for her native Great Britain F gb nl the Valkyries -foot- starting center is the last participant expected to leave for the EuroBasket tournament and follows fellow European teammates Janelle Sala n Julie Vanloo and Cecilia Zandalasini as players whose contracts will be temporarily suspended while they are fulfilling national company duties F gb nl is averaging a career-high points and rebounds for Golden State - She scored a season-high points and grabbed seven rebounds in the Valkyries - win over the Seattle Storm on Saturday Bibby and Chen both played for the Valkyries in the preseason Bibby was the Polish league MVP last season but has largely played professionally in her native Australia after her college days at Mississippi State and Maryland She averaged points and rebounds in two preseason games for the Valkyries Chen the th overall pick out of Connecticut also played for the Valkyries in the preseason She had two points three rebounds and an assist in minutes over the two games The -year-old shooting guard started for the NCAA champion Huskies after three seasons at Princeton Losing F gb nl will be notable for the Valkyries as they already lack size and will be without their tallest athlete for the next inadequate weeks But F gb nl mentioned she is confident the Valkyries will continue to play well in her absence We know what it takes to be great teammates and we know what it takes to step up and do what we need to do for the association to succeed F gb nl announced after Saturday s win So whoever leaves it s gonna be fine Someone s gonna step up and we re gonna do it together That s really the strength of our club According to the WNBA s collective bargaining agreement any participant taking a leave to play in EuroBasket has hours to return after their national organization has completed play Should Great Britain make the EuroBasket finals F gb nl will be slated to miss the Valkyries next six games Backup center Monique Billings figures to start for the next inadequate weeks Coach Natalie Nakase noted on Thursday that newly signed forward Laeticia Amihere will play spot minutes at the five When she leaves it s going to be a big piece missing Valkyries forward Kayla Thornton mentioned of F gb nl I m sure we re going to have to have Monique Billings step up We re going to miss her but we re going to have to hold it down while she s gone and until she gets back