Ivana Raca

Ivana Raca is a Serbian professional basketball player who currently plays for Fenerbahçe of the KBSL in Turkey and the Serbia Women's National Basketball Team. Standing at 1.88 meters, she primarily plays in the power forward position. Raca earned a degree in psychology from Wake Forest University, where she competed in collegiate basketball from 2017 to 2021. She was selected as the 28th overall pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2021 WNBA Draft.
In 2018, Raca competed in the FIBA U20 Women's European Championship in Sopron, Hungary, where she was named to the tournament's All-Star Five. She also received audience recognition as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Earlier in her youth international career, she contributed to Serbia’s junior national teams, earning silver medals in the U18 and U20 European Championships.
Raca began playing basketball at a young age, influenced by her father Dragan Raca, a basketball coach and former professional player. She trained in youth systems in both Cyprus and Greece before moving to the United States for her college education.
During her time at Wake Forest, Raca became the 28th player in program history to surpass 1,000 career points. She concluded her college career ranked ninth all-time in scoring with 1,469 points and tenth in total rebounds with 705.

College

Raca joined Wake Forest University in 2017.

Wake Forest statistics

Source

Year	Team	GP	Points	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2017-18	Wake Forest	31	143	43.0%	32.6%	72.0%	2.6	1.0	0.5	0.3	4.6
2018-19	Wake Forest	30	373	37.6%	27.6%	77.9%	6.4	1.9	1.2	0.5	12.4
2019-20	Wake Forest	32	547	40.3%	31.3%	74.5%	6.8	1.7	1.1	0.4	17.1
2020-21	Wake Forest	25	417	41.6%	28.4%	80.0%	9.0	1.7	1.0	0.7	16.7
Career		118	1,480	40.2%	30.4%	79.3%	6.1	1.6	0.9	0.5	12.5

Career

Born in Cyprus, Ivana started playing basketball in 2009 at the AEL club from Limassol. From 2010 to 2012, she played in the following clubs: AEL from Limassol and Proteas da Noi AEL Limassol. As a very young woman, she played for the younger basketball team of Cyprus. She continued her playing career in the junior team of PAOK from Thessaloniki, where she played from 2012 to 2015. As a member of PAOK's junior team and senior team, she played two seasons from 2013 to 2015. She played for the team Proteas Voulas from 2015 to 2017. In the jersey of this team, she achieved incredible success in the quadruple-double - 22 points, 21 rebounds, 11 assists and 10 stolen balls, and brought the cup to her team in the ESKANA CUP for Junior Women's. In Greece, she won all the national championships in the junior category. Twice she was in the Top - 5. Twice she participated in the school world championships in Limoges, France and Porec, Croatia as the team captain, where she won a silver medal and was in the top five of the championship. Since 2017, he has been playing for the Wake Forrest University basketball team at the University of North Carolina, USA. In 2017, she played in the jersey of the Serbian junior national team at the European Under-18 Basketball Championship. The following 2018, she won a silver medal with the junior national team of Serbia in Sopron, Hungary. Ivana plays for the senior national team of Serbia. Raca was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in the third round of the 2021 WNBA draft. In June 2021 Raca signed to Italian Geas Basket.

Serbian representation

She played for all the younger selections of the Serbian national team, and is currently in the senior team of the national team. With the national team under 18, she won a silver medal at the 2017 World Championships in Sopron, Hungary.. At the European Championship in Sopron for players under 20 with the national team of Serbia, they won the silver medal again, in 2018. Ivana hit one of the most important shots, perhaps the key one in winning a medal - a three-pointer in the overtime match against the Italian national team. In the game against Slovakia, in the eighth finals, she scored 36 points, four threes, no misses, had ten rebounds - index 43. At the championship she was named a member of the ideal five, and by the audience was chosen as the best player of the European Championship.

Achievements

Cyprus Cadet Championship.
Best Young Player of the Cyprus League.
Played for the Cypriot national team.
She won the Cyprus School Championship.
He won the Greek Junior Championship with the team.
She won the Greek School Championship.
Played in the Greek U15 national team .
With the national team of Greece - under 15 won the tournament in Kavala.
With the national team of Greece - under 15 he won the tournament in Athens where he was the top scorer of the tournament.
Named the best player under 15 in the tournament .
Named the top scorer under 15 in the tournament .
They won a gold medal at the World School Basketball Championship.
She twice participated in the school world championships in Limoges, France and Poreč, Croatia as the team captain, where she won a silver medal and was in the top five of the championship.
Named the best young player in Greece.
In the junior championship of Greece, she won a gold medal - the best scorer of the championship.
Selected as the best player A1 - senior team.
With the national team under 18, she won a silver medal at the 2017 World Championships in Shapron, Hungary..
She won a silver medal in 2018 at the European Championship in Sopron for players under 20 with the Serbian national team.
At the European Championships, she was named a member of the All-Star Five.
He was chosen by the audience as the best player of the European Championship.
She scored 1,000 points in her career and thus became the 28th player in the history of the Wake Forist club.
ALL-ACC top 3, average number of points 17.2 per game, 11 games with over 20 points - Top 3, total 193 points for two points - Top 2.
The best result in the last 20 years at the ALL-ACC tournament, 27 points and 13 rebounds. ALL-ACC First Team Tournament, top scorer tournament with an average of 20.33 points per game.
Best ACC Conference Team
Best ACC Conference Conference Team
Best Basketball Hall of Fame FINALIST Miller's Award
ALL - ACC academic team
She was among the four best players in history with performance: double-double, number of points and rebounds
NCAA Finalist
Named the best Wake Forista sport in all sports
VNBA - Draft as 28 pick from Los Angeles Sparks
ACC - averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds per game in 2021
Fenerbahce - Turkish Super League winner
Fenerbahce - EuroLeague Women winner

Family

Ivana comes from a basketball family. Her father Dragan Raca is a former Serbian basketball player and a famous basketball coach who built his career in Cyprus, Greece and China. He was the selector of the basketball national teams of Lebanon, Cyprus and North Macedonia. He achieves notable coaching achievements today in China, where he has been engaged since 2010. Today, he heads the Beikong Fly Dragons basketball club, a member of the Chinese CBA League, as a coach, head coach and general supervisor. For his long-term work in the field of basketball, he was promoted to Honorary Doctor of Science "Alpha BC University".
Branka Raca's mother is a former basketball player and coach who built her career in Serbia and Cyprus. She was her first coach. Ivana's sister, Tijana Raca, is also a well-known basketball player and member of the Cyprus national team who played for the Wyoming University team.