There’s a special bond that comes with playing on behalf of the same school; there is another altogether that two players forge when they bear their country’s flag on the court. Junior guard Emma Koabel and freshman forward Toby Fournier have both.

Hailing from Canada, the two played together in July 2021 at the U19 FIBA World Championships in Madrid and won a bronze medal, becoming just the second Canadian team to reach the podium in the tournament. In their first season together at Duke, Koabel and Fournier will take on the court with similarly high aspirations. 

This time, they’ll have the experience under bright lights that the world stage offers and the close camaraderie earned from a summer together.

FIBA coach Carly Clarke witnessed firsthand the relationship that Fournier and Koabel built during the 2023 U19 FIBA tournament.

“They both find ways to connect with their teammates, have fun and enjoy the journey, both on the court and off the floor,” Clarke said.

Koabel and Fournier add their sparks to the floor in starkly different but complementary ways. Clarke described Koabel as a “great connector,” a guard with fantastic intuition for finding an offensive rhythm and creating opportunities. Fournier, on the other hand, is “high energy.” Her coaches and teammates describe her as dynamic and animated in how she attacks the game, on and off the court. 

“Her athleticism also allows her to run the floor and play with great pace, which often challenges opponents,” Clarke said. 

Sophomore guard Oluchi Okananwa echoed Clarke’s sentiment that Fournier, along with the rest of the freshman class, brings passion to every game and practice that she is a part of. In the bronze-medal game, she scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds. 

The world stage draws a crowd, but Fournier and Koabel are well-versed in handling intense attention. Koabel made a trip to the ACC and NCAA tournaments in her first two years, while Fournier made headlines for viral videos of her dunking midway through her junior year of high school. Still, the Madrid stage posed a challenge. When the Canadians played Spain and France, the European teams, being much closer to home, brought fan bases that packed the stadium.

Team Canada lost in the semifinal to Spain, but it rebounded in the bronze medal game against the host country the next day, so both Blue Devils took hardware home to Toronto. The Canadian coach spoke glowingly, both literally and figuratively, of the environment that Madrid created for the tournament that summer. 

“We got to play on an LED court, which was the first time it had ever been done. So that was a super special experience.” Clarke said. “And then you’re playing in front of big crowds. We played in front of 10,000 people on a couple occasions.”

Koabel and Fournier will carry the lessons they learned in France and the friendship they forged playing Canadian basketball for years into what is arguably the Blue Devils’ most promising season in Kara Lawson’s tenure. More eyes than ever are on women’s college basketball as it reaches a new level of competitiveness, but international play has given both Koabel and Fournier invaluable experience against more physical and relentless opponents. 

The impact of the international game has extended beyond their own time on the court as well: Discussing coach Kara Lawson’s takeaways from the Paris Olympics this past summer, Koabel described the intensity that the Blue Devils have picked up from Team USA. 

“She shows us their work ethic and how important it is to work as hard as even the greatest players in the world,” Koabel said. “They don’t give up.”

As Duke enters the season with their aspirations higher than ever, Fournier and Koabel will play separate roles, but with cohesion that is years in the making.

Editor’s note: This piece is one of many in The Chronicle’s 2024-25 Duke women’s basketball preview. Check out the rest here.