Pool play in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Ankara, Turkey wrapped up today with Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Mozambique and Mali being eliminated.

The top two teams in each of the four pools advance to the quarterfinals. The winners of the quarterfinals will earn Olympic berths with the four quarterfinal losers going into a separate single-elimination draw with the winner claiming the final spot in the Olympics.

Speaking of Mali, I headed down to Connecticut Sun practice so I could do a story on Kara Lawson. I took the chance to ask Sun coach Mike Thibault why Astan Dabo, who was taken by the Sun with the ninth overall pick in April's WNBA draft, did not play for Mali.

Thibault said that when he spoke to Dabo a month ago she said she may not be playing in the tournament. He also said that she is considering heading to the U.S. to work out with some coaches in Houston.

As for the Olympic qualifier, Turkey, Czech Republic, Croatia and France each won their groups while Japan, Argentina, Korea and Canada also advanced to Friday's quarterfinals.

Croatia and Canada will play in the first quarterfinal at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on Friday. Japan and the Czech Republic are up next followed by the Turkey/Argentina and France/Korea games.

It remains to be seen how the teams will be slotted into the Olympic draw. It seems to be a safe assumption that whoever emerged out of the four quarterfinal losers will be the fifth and final qualifier but I'm not sure if they will use a points scored or allowed tiebreaker or simply a blind draw to determine spots 1-4.

Some familiar names finished among the statistical leaders after group play. Puerto Rico's Jasmine Sepulveda, who played collegiately at South Florida, was the second leading scorer with an average of 22 points. Former Old Dominion star Clarisse Machanguana was the third best scorer (19 points per game) and also third in rebounding (10.5). Canada's Courtney Pilypatis, a former star at Vermont, ranked third in assists at 5.5 per game.

Jessica McCormack, who was briefly at UConn, was not a member of the New Zealand squad which lost to the Czech Republic and Argentina.

For those curious about Astan Dabo, the Connecticut Sun's first-round pick in April's WNBA draft, she will be playing for Mali in the Olympic qualifying tournament which began today in Turkey. UPDATED AT 4 P.M. (OK, maybe she won't be in action after all. Mali did play Canada but Dabo did not get into the game won by Canada 89-23).

Dabo and Mali will square off with Canada at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time and it is available on http://www.fibatv.com/ . FYI, it looks like there is a fee charges and subscription needed so you can try as well as on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/FIBA and see if that works.

Canada's team will feature some familiar names including Notre Dame rising junior Natalie Achonwa.

Mali wraps up preliminary play against France on Wednesday.

UConn and U.S. head coach Geno Auriemma is expected to leave for Turkey later on today so he can scout potential Olympic opponents since three of the United States' five opponents in pool play will come from the Olympic qualifying tournament.

MAYA MOORE HEADED TO CHINA
When Maya Moore, UConn's all-time leading scorer, was in Connecticut earlier this month she was uncertain where she would be playing in the winter after Ros Casares folded but said that she had people working on some things.

Well, today on her twitter page Moore announced that she will be playing in Shanxi Xing Rui Flame in China after the end of the WNBA season.

One of her teammates will be 6-8 Australian Liz Cambage, who was taken one spot behind Moore and No. 2 overall in the 2011 WNBA draft.