Fuqua School rising sophomore guard Maureon Tisdale-Couch represented the U.S. on the basketball court during last month’s United World Games in Austria and helped the U.S. team earn bronze.

Tisdale-Couch, who lives in Victoria, had been selected to the team by an organization called STUDENTathlete- World.

The U.S. squad was one of 12 teams competing in the United World Games.

“All the teams were pretty good, so if you wanted to win, you had to fight your hardest,” Tisdale-Couch said.

Across eight games, he said the U.S. team won all but two.

He noted that to win the bronze medal meant a lot.

“That was my first time ever doing something like that, and I was trying my hardest to get the gold, but I ended up with the bronze,” he said.

Tisdale-Couch started at guard, primarily playing the point.

He said he felt good about his personal performance, adding, “I was one of the top leading scorers there.”

He estimated that he averaged around 15 points per game.

“They relied on me being a scorer,” he said of his teammates. The trip represented the first time Tisdale- Couch had left the U.S.“

When I first left, I was just kind of nervous,” he said, but then noted that he met a lot of new friends, they came together and “it was just like I was back home.”

To sightsee, which STUDENTathleteWorld indicated would be part of the experience, Tisdale-Couch and his teammates visited Germany and Italy, and they were able to do some shopping.

Asked if anything surprised him about being outside the U.S., he said, “A lot of people said that they didn’t speak English over there, but a lot of people spoke English — but it was in their accent.”

There is something he learned from the trip that he will keep with him: “Always be respectful when you go to other places. It helps you out a lot,” he said.