Zee Spearman once again has donned a USA Basketball jersey and is spending part of July in Punta Arenas, Chile, for the 2025 FIBA 3×3 Nations League Americas Conference.

Spearman, who had a stellar junior season at Tennessee after transferring from Miami, had her first experience with 3×3 basketball last May with former Lady Vol Cierra Burdick at the 2025 USA Basketball 3X Nationals championship in Mesa, Arizona, in a story that can be read HERE.

That was an event held for U.S. teams with triple digit jersey numbers – an oddity that probably has a reason but startles everyone who watches it. Burdick, who was five months removed from hip surgery, and Spearman were on Team Chaos, which won the event.

Spearman now has a standard two-digit No. 15 on her USA jersey in what is considered her debut as a member of Team USA. The box scores even use her full government name of Lazaria Monique Spearman, and she didn’t take long to make a difference in Punta Arenas.

Spearman’s game is tailor-made for 3×3 after one year in coach Kim Caldwell’s fast-paced system that emphasized defense and rapid offense.

“The quick pace is nothing new for me because of the school I go to now,” Spearman told USA Basketball. “It is just like being right at home.”

Spearman adjusted on the fly last spring in Arizona – and became a difference-maker on the court – with Burdick offering guidance to her and the other newcomers as they gasped to catch their breath.

“They were my babies,” Burdick said. “Zee was laughing because Ruby (Whitehorn) had reposted  Zee’s (Instagram) story and was like, ‘My girl is fighting for her life.’ And Zee was really fighting for her life out there.”

The 3×3 action has very few clock stoppages, rapid transition from offense to defense and a race to 21 points or the most points in 10 minutes, whichever comes first.

“There is no help-side (defense in 3×3),” Spearman said. “We aren’t in gaps, we stay on our matchup the whole time, but in 5×5 you have to be in your gaps and help-side always, so that’s a little adjustment for me.

“It’s helped me a lot with playing defense more aggressively and more up on the ball. It’s helped me be better in the one-on-ones, too.”

The 3×3 Nations League event is a grueling one with 13 games in seven days with one off day.

Instead of a regular 3×3 tournament team of four players, the roster has six with Spearman and four other current NCAA Division I basketball players in Taylor Bigby of TCU; Joyce Edwards of South Carolina; MiLaysia Fulwiley of LSU; and Rachel Ullstrom of Richmond, plus Serena Sundell, a recent graduate of Kansas State.

The games are broken into “stops” in which four players are picked for the first stop – the first group went 2-1 – with the other two players waiting for a slot on the next stop, a situation that also allows for a lot of overlap.

Spearman joined the second and third stops, and Team USA went 5-0 with Spearman on the court and avenged a loss to Canada in the first stop.

After a day off, Team USA will play the fourth stop today, July 25, against Canada at 1:30 p.m. and the Cayman Islands at 4:10 p.m. The fifth stop will be Saturday, July 26, against Argentina at 3:20 p.m. with the sixth and final stop on Sunday, July 27, against Canada at 1:30 p.m. and Argentina at 4:10 p.m.

All of the game are available to watch live HERE on YouTube.

The teams in Punta Arenas accumulate points with each stop and are vying for a spot as the winner of the Americas Conference in the FIBA 3×3 U23 World Cup 2025 that will be held Sept. 17-21 in Xiong’an, China.

The reigning champion gets an automatic slot in China, so Team USA women already are in, along with Germany, which won the men’s competition, and the men’s and women’s team of the host country.

Zee Spearman and Ruby Whitehorn react during the game against Ohio State. (Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics)

Spearman arrived at Tennessee a year ago to play for a new coach in a new system that would not plant her 6-4 frame solely in the post. Her ability to play inside and out with shooting range to the arc helped Tennessee and opened eyes to Spearman’s game. She is now on Team USA and on WNBA draft boards in 2026.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Spearman said in the USA Basketball interview that can be read HERE. “I never thought I’d be here.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released in 2026.