Cliff Hammonds to Compete in Taiwan With Athletes in Action

June 13, 2007

Clemson, SC – Tiger basketball player Cliff Hammonds is one of 12 players who will represent the United States with Athletes in Action (AIA) at the 2007 Jones Cup, held in Taipei, Taiwan beginning July 2. The organization announced its roster last week.

Hammonds and his teammates will gather in Xenia, OH on June 24 for a five-day training camp before traveling to Taipei on June 29. The team will play nine games in a span of nine days and will also perform numerous outreach activities including basketball clinics and visits to a local orphanage.

AIA will be coached by former George Washington and St. John’s head coach Mike Jarvis. He led the U.S. team to a gold medal in 2006 at the Jones Cup. A team from the United States has won the tournament 15 times since its inception in 1977.

Darris Nichols and Alex Ruoff of West Virginia have also been named to the AIA roster. Those two faced Hammonds and the Tigers in the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament this past season.

Other countries competing in the 29th edition of the tournament will be Taiwan, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, and Philippines.

Hammonds has played in 100 career games and has scored 1,077 points during that time. He has started all but one game and ranks in the top 10 in school history in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, three-point goals, and steals. He also sports a cumulative GPA better than 3.0 as a double major in architecture and psychology.