TCU Women's Basketball: Silva Leads Portugal to Seventh Place at FIBA U19 Women's World Cup

Another Horned Frog shined on the international basketball stage this summer as sophomore center Clara Silva helped Portugal finish seventh at the FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup in Brno, Czechia. 

Silva led Portugal in scoring (23 points per game), rebounds (9.7), and blocks (2.9) over seven tournament games and earned All-Second Team and Best Defensive Player honors. 

Her best performance came in an 83-80 Round of 16 win over Israel. Silva posted 37 points on 15-of-20 shooting, grabbed ten rebounds, and set the FIBA U19 World Cup all-time single-game efficiency record (+43). The historic showing took Portugal to its first quarterfinal game at any FIBA global event for women or men and at either the youth or senior level.

Silva, a transfer from Kentucky, is the third TCU women’s basketball player to compete for a national team this summer. Graduate transfer guard Olivia Miles won gold at AmeriCup with Team USA while incoming freshman guard Clara Bielefeld placed fifth at the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2025 as a member of the German National Team. Bielefeld also helped Germany finish as vice champion at the FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket Division B and earn a promotion to Division A. 

Silva has been a member of the Portuguese national team system since 2021, has played on the U20 team, and was in final contention for a spot on the senior national team that competed at the FIBA Women's EuroBasket in June. She has averaged 11.6 points and eight rebounds per game across 33 career games with youth national teams. In 2024, Silva posted a team-high 18.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket, guiding Portugal to a fifth-place finish. 

Silva will have three years of eligibility remaining after transferring to TCU in April. At Kentucky, the 6-7 center played in 31 games and logged at least 10 minutes in 19 of those outings. She averaged four points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks while playing 12.5 minutes per game. The Wildcats earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament during Silva’s freshman campaign. 

Before entering the college basketball ranks, Silva played three years professionally for Unicaja in the Spain-LF Challenge league. She was tabbed a top-10 prospect at her position in the class of 2024 according to various recruiting outlets.